


At Close Game

by MisterMarcuse



Category: Bob the Squirrel, Calvin & Hobbes, FoxTrot, Garfield - Fandom, Pearls Before Swine, Zits (comic)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 14:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 29,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8755924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisterMarcuse/pseuds/MisterMarcuse
Summary: In the near future, torrenting will be the cause of radical crime by a group of video gamers called 'The Bilk Division', fueled by a dedication to both English and Japanese culture. As former members of the division, Susie and Calvin will take it down with the help of Jeremy Duncan.





	1. Prologue: Revelations Headlong

**Author's Note:**

> Before the turn of the decade, when I was still in High School, I had this overly ambitious idea of a group of gamers built from newer newspaper comic strip characters, with a sort of Sci-fi/fantasy/adventure vibe, and how in the future, video games were either outlawed or only available to the Higher class due to too much torrenting, forcing this group to take radical measures at times. Once I finished this idea, I only posted it to this forum and to later sites since I knew the idea wouldn’t exactly catch on with people even around THAT time. But as the months went by, if not entire years, this sole idea began growing from other ideas, be it from one of the relationship between two characters to a tale of vengeance against two others; To even this unnecessary plotline concerning Japan’s dominance over our culture in unnecessarily unconventional ways. I can only recall my main inspiration being Bleedman’s doujinshi series Grim Tales, and PPGD, which made it okay to write fancomics of characters you loved, despite me actually also being inspired by my now dead resentment towards a comic strip for giving a character I loved the boot. But as time went by, my perception of this has changed, from me moving on to see if I could do better in other projects, to me flat out trying to recreate something at least a fraction of ambitious as this was before failing (mainly because doing it for free was actually too strenuous the older you got). I even wanted to start this again by remaking it into a doujinshi as originally envisioned. But sadly, this idea was too much for me. Deep down, this was really no more than what I can no longer deny it as: an overly complicated fan fiction inspired by anime aesthetics at the time, a pretentious (and even flat out offensive) edgy nu metal feel from the mid2000s onward, and just an inexplicably tangled Tarantino riff I thought I could handle but ended up taking from me more than I received from it. It didn’t help I came up with dozens of titles, from having it originally called ‘The Sect’ to a friend suggesting it be named ‘Guns Games and Giftcards’, until I named it after one movie that really made me want to tap my fingers on those keyboards to begin with: At Close Range, which I even pay tribute to, but I mostly suggest watching the movie instead to be honest. The only reason I remade it after four years, besides to correct some fallacies, if not all of them I’m sorry, was in hopes of either taking the Tim Burton route or the Hideaki Anno route. This means I can either abandon it and learn something from it despite having it be a potential ‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’ on my part in the future, or I can just leave it alone and move on to potentially better things until a decade from now, when I can say ‘hey, we’ve reached the age where technology is up to snuff, let’s ‘Rebuild’ this through a movie (fan comic) compared to its originally pressured format as a series (fan fiction)’ even if I’m no Burton nor Anno. Heh, quite frankly, the fact that when I finished writing the second draft of this and was at first excited until I looked to see it was approximately 28,666 words long proves this project most likely belongs in development hell, (much like Superman Lives) at least beyond anything except the general idea. Either way, this is as close to a more refurbished vision than I had planned when teen angst and 90s-00s gun violence entertained me since the first version was just me trying to pull out what I had left in me from High School, albeit to a less coherent degree. So enjoy me really just trying to satisfy a quarter-life crisis despite this new age’s demands on a level of perfection and inspiration that works like Homestuck, Ava’s Demon, and every visual novel nowadays will always hold beyond my grasp.

 (Steve sits in the car unhappily, accompanied by Denise before they exit.)  
  
Steve:  
  
Aright, Denise, here’s your stop.

(They are both standing outside of Denise’s abode before she herself breaks nearly half a minute of silence.)  
  
Denise:  
  
All righty then, well thank you for the movie, Steve, I honestly can’t remember a good time like that since...  
  
(Denise pauses, unable to speak Peter’s name)  
  
Denise:  
  
...since...  
  
(Steve takes hold of Denise’s hands)  
  
Steve:  
  
It’s okay, Denny, I’ll understand if you will...  
  
(Denise’s shocked expression changes to reassurance as their faces get closer. Their lips an inch and a half apart before Steve takes hold with both hands. Denise couldn’t help but feel humoured as reflex)  
  
Denise:  
  
Steve...what are you giving me?  
  
(A note card in Braille revealed itself within Denise’s grasp)  
  
Steve:  
  
Read it...please...  
  
(Steve tells her, as a few tears fall from his face, landing on her precariously)  
  
Denise:  
  
“Forgive me, Denise, they had my family”?  
  
(Before any of them are even given a chance, a bullet diagonally pierces down both of their skulls, causing them to lean towards each other.)  
  
**_AT CLOSE GAME_**

Prologue: Revelations Headlong  
  
(A dark and decrepit hallway/dungeon is lit by two hooded figures, one with a scary native American-like mask and another with a clown-like mask, holding an M21 rifle.)  
  
Clownlike:  
  
Welcome, ex-member  
  
(The scary masked person sees a barely lit room that held nothing but a table, a chair, an old television, and what looked like a guillotine.)  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
Am I on time out now or does that welcome of yours actually come with the rest of a tour guide’s-?  
  
(The Clown-like mask bludgeons the member in the stomach before he could finish)

Clownlike:  
  
Shut it, futile pawn! It’s that same pathetic enmity that has been adding salt to your already painful demise your qualification has surpassed its limit for, now heed carefully!  
  
(A beam of light shines upon a PS2 game console attached to the television set)

Clownlike:  
  
The telly you see was issued in 1985, half a century and a decade ago this very time.  
  
(Points at the television, with the words ‘Zenith’, written on it.)  
  
Clownlike:  
  
Since this grandiose Division came to fruition, not even the most cellophane of plasma screens could replace the one bestowed upon by our founder, Himoneta Bilk, ware wa tadaima.

  
(*PAUSE*)

  
Clownlike:  
  
In the midst of your incompetence, does your membership sacrament retain its ring of a bell?  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
You call mimicking every lazyass American MMORPG zombiebot you also deem prerequisite in gaining entrance a sacrament? I wish I could just say no, but I really do.  
  
(The clownlike moves a chair for the member to sit. The member does what he is suggested to)  
  
Clownlike:  
  
When you requested to leave the Bilk Division for good, you thought it’d be as possible as renouncing citizenship. You have the ballsiest spunk I’ve seen in a while, A75, The kind that would inspire Miyamoto’s family to convince their father’s grave to bring Earthbound 128 back from the grave if you didn’t have too much retardation to make poor Shigeru turn while we’re at it, especially when you spat in the Boss’s face.

(The scary mask looks down)  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
So me being still alive…then…  
  
Clownlike:  
  
It is due to those same raw gintama why failure, unlike your two second’s notice, IS an option.  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
For what?  
  
(The clown mask turns the television on, releasing static)

  
Clownlike:  
  
For x cause, the boss just so coincidentally considered retirement lately, and has eyed you as the only candidate to take my place or, sadly enough, fill the boss’s shoes. Be it your same balls, forte, or honest grit in hacking the most endearing titles of the 21st century such as Half Life 3, or New Republic, even the boss has admitted fascination by your committed expertise in accessing such otherworldly platinum mines without setting a toe outside of continental soil.  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
So flattery is one way you beat around nothing but a cheap bush you could afford as shrubbery to plant on my oh so hopeful funeral.  
  
Clownlike:  
  
Pun or no pun, the game you’ll be playing goes by rainbow six 3, at the final level. By winning, you will be granted a clean slate amongst us, meaning that all is forgiven, aka no shrubbery for you!  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
Oh, and I’ll take tails you lose for a gazillion: by losing you’ll chop off my head or something given that...guillotine thingy.  
  
(The clown mask begins to giggle a bit)  
  
Clownlike:

Sadly for both of us, heh, you’re HEAD is nearly in the right place...

(The clown flickers another light, revealing 2 unexpected things: 1. the guillotine was actually 2 handcuff holes, and 2.The room revealed to have severed hands, mounted by the hundreds, holding PS2 controllers as well.)  
  
Clownlike:  
  
Arrogance cost you, but your skillset is still at full speed ahead, so this can still be a dream come true for you should the boss catch you at the boss’s good side should the boss ever see your again.  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
As cultivated as your flattery remains, this is my first time playing with something this antique.

  
Clownlike:  
  
No it’s not, you’ve conquered even the most obscure Metal Gear spinoff, which is Japanese chess by comparison, now start!  
  
(Member A75 plays the game for approximately twenty minutes before allowing his guard to slip and fails)

  
Clownlike:  


Tisk tisk tisk, close but game over

(The clown mask brings out the guillotine to place the member’s hands within)  
  
Clownlike:  
  
All right, quit smartassing me by martyring as the dumbass, that wasn’t an unlucky slip at the last minute, am I wrong?

  
Scary Mask:  
  
Not that my impression of the boss suggests I even wanted to fill its shoes, but your job is to kill me, not socialize with death row.  
  
Clownlike:  
  
True, I mean an hour is like a minute for me when it comes to these hands and their in or outs. The families they left behind. The dreams I coaxed out of them under the hilarious pretence they had a way out before they were set free and became, as the great metal band Korn would put it, another brick in the-

Scary Mask:  
  
*SIGH* Well you know my record, lack of history resembling the loss of any game, including and especially the ones I’ve played for the first time. And if it hadn’t been for this death cult you all pass of for some mafia, aka the skeeter bite on my back for a while now, I’d still have some sanity to keep that streak rather than go for any option that came my way! TLDR Yes, martyrdom’s the name of the game that topples over your recidivism of the English Empire’s monsters by bringing out the undisputedly yet inevitably dark side of pluralism in even the most recreational, or FUN, video games couldn’t successfully hide thanks to human nature!!!  
  
Clown Mask:  
  
Wow...at least you really got me back hard for the borderline Holy Grail reference I almost made.  
  
(The clown mask places the member’s hands inside the guillotine)  
  
Clown Mask:  
  
Final words, check! Any final requests before we slash your wrists for you, Mr. Emo?  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
Unless you’ve had the same balls to see into the faces of those innocent bystanders you’ve dynamically screwed over, nah, I’m ready and I doubt you would start now given how it takes a coward to know a few.  
  
Clown Mask:  
  
Pffft! I don’t know about testicles, mate, but your nads and your hands are all the same to me in this pantheon of a museum. But hey, maybe uglifying a pretty face will show us who the real sole coward is won’t it?  
  
(The clown mask begins to remove the scary mask)  
  
Clown Mask:  
  
-So if your pained visage let’s me down, there’s always your identity.  
  
(The clown mask completely removes the scary mask, dropping it upon doing so and freezing)  
  
Scary Mask:  
  
And I’m supposed to count on that why?  
  
_________________________________


	2. Chapter 1: In the land of the blind, Two and a half birds means one’s stoned

Chapter 1: In the land of the blind, Two and a half birds means one’s stoned  
  


(Marcus sleeps peacefully before an annoying ring forces his eyes wide open. He notices its origin isn’t the alarm clock, but rather his cellular phone, which he vigorously yet tediously answers)

  
Marcus:  
  
What is it, man!?  
  
Jason:  
  
RIVIABLO, REALMS OF REQUIEM! The trailer for the sequel destined to change the universal gaming market platform for generations to come! That, is in your definition that has surpassed Oxford or even the most primitively Isabellian variant of the Germanic origin of the term “What it is, man”.  
  
Marcus:  
  
…Fine…so when’s it begin?  
  
Jason:  
  
T Minus fifteen hours, two minutes and counting, cause I don’t want to waste those sacred seconds spoiling them on to you, so just be ready sooner or face death by Freddy Krueger.  
  
Marcus:  
  
…Seriously.  
  
Jason:  
  
Hey, at least trick or treaters will know how even I think the joke on our street is old, plus he’s not bad in Mortal Kombat. The point is this is a special occasion, Marcus, and I expect you to see the mutual sentiment-  
  
Marcus:  
  
All right, Sheldon Cooper, I’ll be there fashionably early if that floats your boat, okay?  
  
Jason:  
  
I speak for everyone when I say shit will get and go down real if you miss it, so don’t. Adios!  
  
(Marcus hangs the phone up lethargically, then bangs his alarm clock a decimal after it rang)

 

[T minus fourteen hours and fifty-seven seconds later]  
  
(Marcus rode his bike towards Jason’s hollow, trying to keep his word about being earlier than necessary, which needless to say was still a minute given his distance, when a gathering of dozens of people near a cul-de-sac, including an ambulance and a camera crew, caught his attention. Marcus approached a bald kid)  
  
Marcus:  
  
What’s going on?  
  
Charlie Brown:

 

Beats what I can stand because I just couldn’t what happened here. One moment I’m playing a yachtze tournament, then some loud band one hour, a scream another, now this.  
  
Marcus:  
  
Did anyone die?

  
Charlie Brown:  
  
As little as I’d prefer to think about it, It seems so. There are sheets covered…over…there. You’re from the Elm neighbourhood, right?  
  
Marcus:  
  
That’s me, so those are two corpses underneath blankets over yonder then.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
Good grief, yes. Just see for yourself! I’d just rather think of them as sheets knowing blankets wouldn’t be the least bit accurate, believe me.  
  
(Marcus returns the bald kid a weird look before approaching the sheet coated corpses amongst crowds of people. Then something dismal occurs to him)  
  
Marcus:  
  
WAIT A…CRAP! JASON’S TRAILER! I am so…  
  
(As Marcus has his mild meltdown, the police remove a portion of the blanket from one of the two victims’ face, leaving Marcus more petrified than he already was before.)  
  
Marcus:  
  
No…she’s dead?  
  
_________________________________  


(Jason walked back and forth, the remote in one hand and the cellular phone furiously in the other)

Jason Fox:  
  
Marcus, when I say 11:30 I really mean…okay, you still have a minute and a half, but I will still hunt down the unfortunate mafia assholes that had better be holding you hostage for me to barely forgive you, before I-

 

(Jason immediately answers the phone as the noise barely became audible)  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
Marcus, the only excuse I can buy at the moment is that you decided to stay at home at watch the tr-  
  
Marcus:  
  
Forget about that right now, Jason! Does your brother know what happened yet?  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
My brother my balls! We are ten seconds away from stepping forth into the sanctified realms and you’re more concerned about some crap my brother can give on his own if he’s not ASLEEP ENOUGH to care like everybody else in this house of artless futility!  
  
Marcus:  
  
Please Jason, just forget about video games for once and listen to me very carefully, his ex-girlfriend-  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
NO!  
  
Marcus:  
  
Yeah, okay! If this is really more important to you than-  
  
(Suddenly, Marcus sees his clock reads 11:33, with the presumed knowledge the trailer was over by now and Jason didn’t even get to see a second of it)  
  
Marcus:  
  
Oh shit! Jason, I’m sorry. This was just not the moment for me to watch that trailer. I know this game really means something to you, but I’m still freaking out, and I don’t even know what is going-  
  
(Jason hangs up. Marcus waits a minute, walks somewhere unseen, and dials a different set of digits)  
  
Marcus:  
  
Identity confirmation MA11  
  
Computer Voice:  
  
Purpose address!  
  
 Marcus:  
  
Oh right…Honcho head, code RB2U  
  
Computer Voice:  
  
Hold!  
  
(Marcus stands there motionless, until he turned for one second to notice a figure about a kilometre away from his peripheral vision)  
  
Marcus:  
  
Jay-?  
  
Robotic Voice:  
  
Member A11, divulge this testament of essence with evidently cocksure velocity.  
  
Marcus:  
  
Mmmhm! Yes, High Boss! The job you assigned for me: To distract the subject  
  
Robotic Voice:  
  
Correct  
  
Marcus:  
  
It was susccessfull…I MEAN ACCOMPLISHED! High Boss.  
  
Robotic Voice:  
  
Accomplished…as in he is taking it lightly  
  
Marcus:  
  
Not in the tiniest bit, High Boss.  
  
Robotic Voice:  
  
That will be all.  
  
(The voice goes off as Marcus waks away)  



	3. Chapter 2: Old Arrival

Chapter 2: Old Arrival  
  


(19 year old Jeremy Duncan, a PH D in tech design for his innovations in robotics, was living the life of a dorm-mate in a Massachusetts Brownstone apartment and listening to a Gorillaz album)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Oh joys are ours indeed, 2D. Ours here being hours and hours on a report in replicating metallic nerve with the right kind of genus of waterproof material to make function properly without another short circuit should they ever meet the odds of visiting that, by the by, now degradable and implausible plastic beach of thours!!  
  
(Jeremy was grasping his head as though trying to avoid going bald)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Welp, I’m already on the dude’s worst side, why request a restraining order from his voice actor if I can just get out more often? I already had the poor VA break character that first time.  
  
(Jeremy leaves his apartment and breathes the air in, despite it being an evening Twilight)

Jeremy Duncan:   
  
_I feel pretty, oh so pretty!  
I feel pretty, charming, and…_  
Fucking gay even in isolated public.

To the circle K, dudes!  
  
(Jeremy walked angrily, unbeknownst of the figure spying on him until it rustled a couple of bushes by accident. Jeremy feels that tinge of surprise before the figure hides behind a nearby car so Jeremy doesn’t catch time to spot him. Jeremy turns around and eventually makes it to a Seven-eleven instead. He was reading an issue of “Tactical operator” upon arrival)

Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Oh Bushmaster, you can’t make the crème brúlee of all weapons without breaking a few desert eagle eggs and, given their natural habitat’s conditions, expect it to really catch not just any fire, but the definitive artistry of it’s delicious force to be reckoned with when given a taste to anyone just ASKING for-  
  
Hector Suarez:  
  
I really hope you know more about pastries, otherwise you need to pay for that now.  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Oh hello Hector, sorry for the break from the ol’ modus operandi. As in just because I work in robotics automatically entails me to become a cyborg myself. But automatically the hell with that, you know?  
  
Hector Suarez:  
  
No worries, just get what you need, bro. I can talk when we’re BOTH done with our current jobs, just without calling it unemployment. And I’m really just trying to be cool here, ok Jeremy?  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Gotcha. First allow me to get some drinks and I’m off your back, promise.  
  
Hector Suarez:  
  
I told you dude, no worries, we close at 10.  
  
(Jeremy saw the clock read 8:46, meaning he still had time as Hector advised. Upon making it to the tea drink isle, something caught Jeremy’s eye upon grabbing an Arizona: 2 hooded figures. One was inside and walked away to the left, while the other was outside and took out a knife.)  
  
Hector Suarez:  
  
Wassamatter you, Jeremy? Nine cents not enough retail price for those? Cause the store, aka I, can only bargain for 70 cents when we both know the levels of immaturity a cent lower will put us through despite our-  
  
(Jeremy looks back at Hector distractingly during his conversation before noticing both figures were gone when he looked at that same spot. Jeremy runs with his one Arizona and leaves a dollar for Hector)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Levels? Nobody wants change anymore anyway!  
  
(Jeremy walks out rapidly so as to avoid suspicion from prying eyes by trying not to flat out run. Once making it to his flat, that same bush from earlier made a rustling sound. He quickly ignored it and simply reached for his keys before the sound, like his modified anxiety, grew louder. He quickly opened the door. Trembling to turn the lights on, Jeremy only saw a voice scrambler in his way.)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
I guess some trick or treaters usually prefer an earlier start than…usual to…practice-  
  
(Jeremy’s grin of chuffed disappointment was slowly stripped of its relief upon further examination of an insignia marked on the same voice scrambler: The sign of an eye, control, and crown simultaneously)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
This…? *GASP!* NO! DEAR GOD, NO! This CAN’T BE FOR REAL! NO!  
  
(Jeremy then turned around slowly and faced a hooded member, who managed to sneak its way into Jeremy’s apartment)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
I THOUGHT I DESTROYED EVERY SINGLE TRACKING DEVICE PERSONALLY!! SERIOUSLY, AND WITHOUT SARCASM OR ANY OTHER RHETORICAL SUGGESTION: WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES THE TERM “CLEAN SLATE” SO FUCKING COMPLICATED TO FIGURE OUT!? I THOUGHT I DID EVERYTHING YOU NUTS ASKED ME TO, SO WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT QUARREL DO I HAVE WITH YOU TYPES ANY-FUCKING-MORE?!?!?!?  
  
(The figure revealed her face, as though to hush Jeremy: a girl, about 15 or 16 years old, with dark brown hair, and grungy clothes that implied she lived the life of a hobo. She also had one dark brown eye due to the right one being blocked by and eye patch)  
  
Girl:  
  
I’m looking for Calvin Wintek.  
  
_________________________________  
  
(Jeremy remained surprised at the idea that a member such as herself had gone as far as reveal her identity as such)  
  
Jeremy Duncan:  
  
Showing your face…Calvin…give me a shot: you’re either going to kill me quickly right now because a sect member slash subordinate would only do that to brag without leaving any bystander breathing like this after I oh so willingly tell you what you want or need to know, difference much, or you’re some rival company/group whatever double agent pirate.  
  
(The girl punch slaps Jeremy and grabs him by the collar)  
  
Girl:  
  
How about we just ease into this. To start my name is Susan Derkins, but call me Susie, and it is finally nice to meet you, Mr Jeremy Duncan.

(Susie extends the hand she had free, letting Jeremy shake it)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sweet relief! Though Calvin did probably mention you at some point. Any time he brought up his misbegotten youth, so I can blame his influence and still apologize for any pent up misandry you may have inherited from him.  
  
(Susie let go of Jeremy, allowing him to stand up)  
  
Susie:  
  
Misplaced?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
He told me all about it: “I don’t remember much about my childhood except for a tiger, a girl named Susie Derkins I teased a lot, and my parents before I turned ten.” The rest is just an amnesiac’s mystery.  
  
Susie:  
  
So he lost it by the age of ten.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
He’s fifteen now, I imagine you’re the…same age.  
  
Susie:  
  
Almost. Sixteen is more like it.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Huh, well I don’t mind the punches, but you’re…a dumpster alleyway’s version of what I pictured every time Calvin brought you up.  
  
(Susie doesn’t feel offended, but rather slightly looks away)  
  
Susie:  
  
When you see the present as the future, time can do so much to you as you realize how painfully relative the past is…or could have been.  
  
_________________________________  
  
(Susie and Jeremy were in the Kitchen, with Jeremy serving Susie a cup of that same Arizona he bought)  
  
Susie:  
  
I...thought it was certified bullshit at first….this life punishing me with more than my share of false coincidences, until you told me, with zero doubt in your enunciation, his name being Calvin Wintek…MY Calvin Wintek.  
  
<FLASHBACK>

  
_(Calvin, age 5, sported a black sock in his hand with googly eyes)  
  
Calvin Wintek:  
  
Here’s stinky, the talking sock  
  
(Calvin approached Susie, also aged 5 while playing with her toys in peace)_

 _  
Calvin Wintek:  
  
_ _Hi stinky, say something to Susie_

 _  
(Susie is enraged before he even spoke)  
  
Calvin Wintek:  
  
“Hello, you ugly bucket of boogers”  
  
(Susie nearly uppercuts Calvin to kingdom come before abandoning her dolls altogether)  
_  
<FLASHBACK OVER>  
  
Jeremy:  
  
But he didn’t really NOT have any friends, did he? I mean he told me about you, who counts. Unless that stuffed pet also holds rights.  
  
(Susie sipped some more Arizona)  
  
Susie:  
  
The only difference between Calvin and me was that he never got bored with HIS stuffed friends, and I guess…I…envied him for that  
  
Jeremy:  
  
In…conclusion, neither of you had much of a childhood then.  
  
(Susie spits her Arizona out at Jeremy)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
If that’s how baby birds drink it, I can now verify-  
  
Susie:  
  
Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Is that what y- EVERYONE has a childhood, Jeremy! Are they always good? Maybe not! Are we able to cherish them? In my case sadly I wasn’t! You can’t even assume what it’s like to never see someone again only for you to waste years forging a new self until…that…same…someone…  
  
(Susie furiously sighs and stands up to start walking away as Jeremy wiped his face)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Susie! Where are you going??  
  
Susie:  
  
This, or you, isn’t helping. I wanted to see Calvin right away, not someone I could relate to.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Hey! I don’t know what that subordinate lifestyle did to you, but don’t you DARE reinvolve me into that sect’s universe. I was able enough to help Calvin leave so if you still at least want to see him then I-  
  
(Only Susie was unaware of the door’s opening as Jeremy quit talking)  
  
Susie:  
  
OH! So now we’re part of a secular cult, fine by moi! It’s all I’ve heard past rumours afters leaving The Bilk Division: we drink espresso off of NES cassettes like wine off of a human skull because we’re that pledged to video games! I get it because that winexpresso is tainted in me forever and you’re just another unconscious fuck who assumes how it felt just because you designed the toys and gadgets for the real video games we play whether we like it or not!!!

(Susie stops talking once Jeremy, instead of replying, gives her a look of contempt and surprise. Calvin beats her to the question she nearly asks.)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Uhhh…  
  
(Calvin was a year younger than Susie, but that didn’t stop him from being taller. He had spike blond hair, blue eyes, and wore a red jacket over a dark Slipknot T)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Calvin!...I…remember we postponed the cartilage joint replacement for tomorrow, or at least once I called because my project still needs a few tune ups and touches with drafting  
  
Calvin:  
  
That’s the issue at the mo, my arm can’t stop leaking and the whole world’s starting to think my “prosthetic” limb is bleeding or something.  
  
(As a demonstration, Calvin raises his right arm and nearly mimics the T-800 from Terminator 2 as he peels his sleeve to reveal the metallic portion as though it was sweating marine blue rather than leaking. Jeremy sighs and reaches for a magnifying glass-type of monocle to take a better look at Calvin’s arm, completely forgetting about Susie’s undeserved jolt)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Oh, how I do long for the luxury of getting out more often as every generation since video games came along has so apathetically told us so.  
  
(Calvin looked at Susie obliviously, smiling as he was indeed more concerned about Jeremy’s task at hand than making friends, even if Susie still wanted to)  
  
Susie:  
  
Hi.  
  
Calvin:  
….  
Hello  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Oh fuck! My manners, right! This is…Sue, Calvin. And vice versa, Sue.  
  
(Calvin smiles at first, but that same gleam fade in seconds when he looks at her closely and thinks about it)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Wait…I know you!  
  
(Susie is shocked once Calvin walks away from Jeremy’s attention and into Susie’s)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Calvin…I wanted to tell you, it’s just-  
  
Calvin:  
  
Don’t worry, Jeremy, you couldn’t hide it either way.  
  
(Calvin remains the only smiling and non-confused person in the apartment)  
  
Calvin:  
  
How could I forget…the subordinate gal who saved my life?  
  
_________________________________  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
My brother my balls! We are ten seconds aways from stepping forth into the sanctified realms and you’re more concerned about some crap my brother can give on his own if he’s not ASLEEP ENOUGH to care like everybody else in this house of artless futility!  
  
Marcus:  
  
Please Jason, just forget about video games for once and listen to me very carefully…  
  
(Marcus didn’t know that as Jason talked on the cellular phone furiously with one hand, his other angrily changed the channel to a local news station by accident)  
  
Marcus:  
…his ex-girlfriend-  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
NO!  
  
(Marcus was still under the idea that Jason’s tone was obsessive rather than despondent)  
  
News reporter:  
  
-Our top story tonight: “Killer in the cul-de-sac” as 18 year old Denise Alberti Russo, along with her supposed boyfriend Steve R.B. Sykes, suffered a fatal gunshot to the head within the Devon Prefecture. It is claimed a sniper might have done the job by one eyewitness, although officials claim it was too dark to make-  
  
Marcus:  
  
Yeah, okay! If this is really more important to you than-  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
…  
  
(Jason drops the control, unable to contain these newly growing and overtly painful feelings. Meanwhile, Marcus assumes the obvious yet wrong idea)  
  
Marcus:  
  
Oh shit! Jason, I’m sorry. This was just not the moment for me to watch that trailer. I know this game really means something to you, but I’m still freaking out, and I don’t even know what is going-  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
Those…bloody…bastards…  
  
(Jason hangs up and leaves his house. He ran as fast as he could or until he figured out how to release his anger as energy that didn’t involve his instincts)  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
Bloody…bloody…bastards!  
  
(Jason tries his hardest not to cry, yet grits his teeth with no thought. In the middle of a pavement ten blocks away from his house, he kneels down and slams the phone in a revertible fashion to the ground.)  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARDSSSS!!!!!!!!  
  
(Jason’s hate held him prisoner, forcing him to turn his back on any logic and common sense left in him, before reaching in his pocket for a photo. He didn’t take it out, but knowing what it was brought an empathetic yet bitter comfort that was enough to convert that same rage to sadness. Also enough to droop his head because of it all)  
  
Jason Fox:  
  
Why you, Denise?

* * *

Note: The last name added on Calvin is a desperate portmanteau of Winston Smith and Guy Montek, since I wanted it to have that 1950s dystopian novel feel at the time.


	4. Chapter 3: Withdrawal

Chapter 3: Withdrawal   
  
(Both Susie and Jeremy’s and Susie’s eyes denoted a mixed bag of confusion, surprise, and reflex, albeit mostly the very latter)  


Calvin:  
  


So you’re finally part of _la grande résistance_ then, I take it Jere here finally briefed you in on everything.  
  
Susie:  
  
Briefed n- Wait! You **do** know who I am then, do you not? It’s not only been a couple of years but to recognize me like this?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Years? Has our debut fiasco back in that dungeon really taken up that much of your time?  
  
Susie:  
  
Dungeon.  
  
Calvin:  
  


Then tell me yourself, how has life outside of the sect been treating you?  
  
(Susie gets ticked off by this)  
  
Susie:  
  
Again with this ‘sect’…oh you go and tell me. Other than the eye patch, my betrayal to that same neo nazi/illuminati rebel group you karmically label, and the DEA, FBI, CIA forcing you to sleep in a tent made of newspapers, I’ve been fit as a fuckdamn fiddle myself, tell him I’m wrong, Jere!!!  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Whoa, chill pill, Sue! I wanted a say in this as much as you did when we stepped foot in this apartment.  
  
Susie:  
  
All right, cool! Let’s start again then…Calvin!  
  
(Susie looks at Calvin square in the eyes.)  
  
Susie:  
  
Past the words ‘Sue’, do you or do you not remember me?  
  
Calvin:  
  
 I remember you as the Boss’s right winged subordinate…who else?  
  
(Susie returns a nearly heartbroken gaze back at Calvin. All these years most likely robbed him of his memories as younger child)  
  
Susie:  
  
An…old friend?  
  
Calvin:  
  
How…old?  
  
Susie:  
  
Not that old apparently…I just, thought you knew me…  
  
(Susie hid her waterworks to instead form a fib quickly: she looked at the ever stargazing Jeremy, who was already exhausted with most of the melodrama)  
  
Susie:  
  
Off of Jeremy’s side, that’s all.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
What or who now? Me?  
  
Calvin:  
  
You? Then why not prep me you knew her as well?  
  
(Calvin looked almost vehemently at Jeremy, who only wanted to get this night over with rather than fix it)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Meh…I never figured it would be a big deal the moment we’d bring up intros, maybe.  
  
Susie:  
  
Yeah, but the blame’s on my part as well, you know, withdrawal.  
  
Calvin:

  
You mean from the se-ERR The Bilk Division.  
  
Susie:   
  
No no, not just the sect, a bunch of other things too. Thanks to Jeremy here, actually, my instincts haven’t at all obliged me to do what I should have done back in that dungeon.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Heh, so your addiction still can’t be satiated unless I surrender my bad hand.  
  
Susie:  
  
No, it’s just that these past couple of months have robbed me of everything! My life, my future, my family, my EYE.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Oh…then…it’s far too late now.  
  
Susie:  
  
Too late already? How can-  
  
Calvin:

  
Did I say that? Don’t fret, I mean it’s too late right now, like literally. One hour and midnight will call, so maybe it’s time for us all to take a rest and save it for tomorrow, how about that?  
  
(They all looked at each other in limited wonder before simultaneously shrugging in agreement)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I only have a set of bunk beds though, so one of us is going to have to take the couch.  
  
Calvin:  
  
I’ll do it.  
  
Susie:  
  
Are you sure, Calvin? I mean you live here.

  
Calvin:  
  


What better reason? Being a guest also means you can fill Jeremy in before shut-eye.  
  
(Jeremy looks back at Calvin, who nods in agreement)  
  
Jeremy:  
  


Mmmmh! Sounds like a plan!  
  
(Susie followed Jeremy upstairs, only looking back at Calvin once)  
  
Susie:  
  
Goodnight, Calvin.  
  
Calvin:

  
Goodnight, Sue, we’ll prepare more tomorrow, I promise.  
  
(They all leave to their respective resting areas)  
  
_________________________________  


(Jason Fox sat on a fountain’s edge, staring at a photo of Denise as tears leniently slid down his face)  
  
Jason:  
  
I know that deep within my heart I contributed to your death, Denise…but…*SOB*…how?  
  
(Jason grasped his own face to avoid wrinkling the picture instead)  
  
Jason:  
  
Someone… should just have the guts to tell me what I did wrong! Was it joining The Bilk Division? Keep secrets to myself because there is such a thing as perfection now? LEAVE The Bilk Division?  
  
(Jason sprang to his feet)  
  
Jason:  
  


OR IS IT A SIN TO FINALLY GO AGAINST MY NATURE AND START LIKING **A** GIRL?!?!  
  
(Jason hyperventilated slowly before doing two things that would prompt his resolve: 1.leave the photo behind, and 2. Replace it with a locked and loaded gun)  
  
Jason:  
  
Should this really have been their doing then fuck them and indecision: I will make them pay and suffer at the same time.  
  
(Jason walked away vigorously)  
  
_________________________________


	5. Chapter 4: Chickened out for The Teenage Soul

Chapter 4: Chickened out for The Teenage Soul   
  
(Jeremy sat on the top bunk as could be expected)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Yeah…so much for that first report.  
  
Susie:  
  
Of what?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Just your run-of-the-mill replication of sensory, motor, and association neurons with the right amount, and usage, of isotopes of plutonium and silicon while at the same time trying to browse through some lanthanides that can stick to these like cartilage rather than corrode by one sole millilitre of liquid such as acid rain. One can agree nothing lasts forever but as long as it coincides with the human lifespan that’s fine by me.  
  
Susie:   
  
Oh…that sounds like it took a lot of research.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Baby steps for me. For you…think of it like you’re finally meeting Bowser yet again: It’s either really hard or really time consuming. I try to see it as fun since in reality it’s both a journey and a futile means to an end.  
  
Susie:  
  
This Sect you and Calvin call has really taken the fun out of video games for ya, hasn’t it?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Is that how you think we feel? Video games obviously have a complex electronic quality to them which I quickly found my calling from. It was just the old ‘too much of a good thing’ allergen that made me distance myself from them, like an obese person to chocolate cake, or the way our brains’ lack of handling dopamine force us to be picky about new music, or to put it plainly, a method actor to Shakespeare.  
  
Susie:  
  
All right, Shakespeare I can get behind since it’s older, harder to read given the feeling of alienation when you try your best to get invested in it. But how can you compare it to Nintendo?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Shakespeare, despite being English, is an English too sophisticated, for me personally, to understand. Like Russian when you connect the alphabet to its Germanic relations. Try giving yourself a break from video games for one decade and into the real world, you will notice how complicated the first smash brothers is to the up-to-date counterpart, or any follow up, remake or sequel is to the version you grew up with and actually enjoyed.   
  
Susie:  
  
So now newer video games have less of a replay value than Shakespeare.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sue, Shakespeare may have been forced upon us in school, but at the same time, we ourselves are obliged to desensitize our love for video games by running it to the ground at that same early stage in our lives. We’re just unconscious of it because it’s an escape for us. Sure, we never take piano lessons or ballet once we’re freer upon our journey towards adulthood, but at the expense of that same escape we ironically didn’t want to escape now as much as we did in our youth: be it comics, movies, or those same video games.

 

Susie:  
  
Again, you have our fucked up Nintendo club to thank for that I take it.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
It’s fine. I’ll just be the better player if you tell me your life story, pretty please.  
  
Susie:  
  
Life story, yes, just tell me where to start.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I don’t know, the last time you and Calvin met each other before this lunacy took place, maybe.  
  
Susie:  
  
Where to begin THERE then…I was eight going on nine when Calvin’s parents moved to Massachusetts , taking the only company I had with them. I mean, you can only play with your dollies so much before that awful depression they call growing pains brought me from stuffed animals to stuffing any bully’s face in out of self-defence. If it hadn’t been for my love for martial arts, the sect would’ve hired someone else at fourteen.   
  
Jeremy:  
  
You were like a security guard for their clan then.  
  
Susie:  
  
Tch! They hired me before anyone else could defend themselves from me was more like it. To word it correctly, they hired me to live up to the fear they instilled on everyone beyond hacker capacity.   
  
Jeremy:  
  
Then I can only imagine how your _rendez-vous_ with the chief went.  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh the High Boss? Think of it as the exact opposite of a flash mob, in the middle of a fake otaku convention. As in…the real members are the ones who conceal themselves the best.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sounds like the fun part of the job.  
  
Susie:  
  
Fun being your definition of having to pay the price in an unspeakable way if you were a spy or anyone else who wasn’t invited to make the whole façade look real.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Oh dear.  
  
Susie:  
  
I wouldn’t worry, it was the kind no one wanted to attend anyhow. Especially if it was in an abandoned elementary school, where an unlit principal room was where the interviews were being held.  
  
<FLASHBACK>  
  
_(Susie, a year younger, is in an abandoned office, face to face with a figure that sported a mixed mask of Bowser and the Joker from Arkham Asylum)  
  
The Boss:  
  
I’m glad you know who I am. It’ll save me some time.  
  
Susie:  
  
You’re a mixed bag of terrorist groups that make up cults and the seven families. If you think for one second I’m going to join-  
  
The Boss:  
  
Think of us less as anything pertaining our corrupt crime reputation, seeing as not even Canada is exempt from those, and more as the Hindi social ranking for gamers. I am The High Boss, the priest and academic of this Division, centred not upon perfection but endowed faith of a thousand titles, and I’ll continue that streak. You can be my warrior, boss or if you’d like, Queen in command, much like my second subordinate also endowed by this trust.  
  
Susie:  
  
Queen, that has a nice ring to it. Princess has been feeling too flashy lately.  
  
The Boss:  
  
You also hold the authority to keep the lower two types of members, high and low in standard, in line with these.  
  
(The High Boss gives Susie a bracelet-like device)  
  
The Boss:  
  
Details condensed: If you’re faithful you can live. Otherwise, be it by poison, explosion or your expertise, you don’t.  
  
Susie:  
  
So you want me more than just a member already.  
  
The Boss:  
  
You’ve already climbed the ladder enough to qualify with me as it is, something only the highest member could merely try and fall under pretence to attempt.  
  
Susie:  
  
You sound like you have something against high members.  
  
The Boss:  
  
Personally yes. You see, members, high or low, are reckoned one day and executed the next. It’s gotten to the point we **want** to be shut down by collective like any other imminently suicidal terrorist group. That’s when I don’t consider them friends: when they’re human rather than humane beings  
  
Susie:  
_  
_Which otherwise you kill off._  
  
The Boss:  
  
Belated friendship, and betrayal, are the two margins subordinates can differentiate from. They’re not just disposable acquaintances, and I mean beyond this union.  
  
Susie:  
  
All right, you’ve got me sold on this…Division. But with all due respect, how can you trust me as a friend if we’ve only just met?  
  
The Boss:  
  
Like I said, It’s all in the oath. If what you’re referring to as we speak are more intimate connections, let me let you in on a little secret.  
  
(The Boss scoots to Susie’s length)  
  
The Boss:  
  
Between the two of us, I’m not in this for any order, profit, or political respect as my motives transcend that of any conventional nature.   
  
Susie:  
  
And are you going to tell me them?  
  
The Boss:  
  
What I can tell you is that they are fuelled by an idea that cannot be defined by its quality/quantity ratio, unlike money, video games, or any other object that can be just purchased. Ideas are catalysts compared to the core substrate known as complex execution. Should something be valuable to plan out first for it to exist, even by theory, is it not only worth sharing right away outside of the host.  
  
Susie:

_  
__Neat, so when do I get to know this idea?_  
  
The Boss:  
  
In due time. I’ve already earned this aristocratic board game. Now, with the right amount of timing, I must conquer it. 

_ Susie: _

_  
_ _Promising…I_ _’ll give it a thought._

_ The Boss: _

_  
__So you refuse. Ah well, we’re clearly just hardcore gamers to you._  
  
Susie:

__

_Whoa whoa! When did I use my own words to say ‘I do not want to join The Bilk Division’? Come on!_  
  
The Boss:

_  
__The moment you implicitly avoided the word ‘Yes’. That’s as far as I can tell from your free will that you consider yourself ready. It’s bad enough my knowledge and personal experience with_ **these** members is a simple conveyer belt of initiation, task, and reprehensive failure. But are you really weak enough to judge how skilled you are?  
  
Susie:

_You think I’m weak?_  
  
The Boss:

__

_It was never up to me from the start, after all-_

_(A member opens the door to designate Susie’s departure)_

_ The Boss: _

_A man chooses, a slave obeys._

<END OF FLASHBACK>  
  
Susie:

Two years of the Boss’s work. Time I could’ve spent my youth like any other teenager…instead of learning what a true friend it was.

(Jeremy smirked and looked down at Susie’s bed)

Jeremy:

A true friend, you say.

(Susie nudges her head out to see Jeremy)

Susie:

Really…after all, now we know-

(Susie took off her eye-patch to reveal a void-like scar where her right eye used to be)

Susie:

True friends stab you in the front.

(Susie goes back in her bed)

Jeremy:

Oh…then how’d that occur?

(Susie puts her eye-patch back on)

Susie:

It hurts just remembering it, but if Calvin was the very member you were ordered to take out, would you give me another shot after letting you down on purpose?  
  
Jeremy:

Why not? Who’s the boss here?

Susie:

That wouldn’t explain why the boss gave me another shot, would it?  
  
Jeremy:

Hm…It probably knew you were old friends then.

Susie:

It probably wanted to hide it as much as I did when the Boss gave me another name I had no quarrel with personally: Denise.

<FLASHBACK>

_(Steve and Denise remain together after exiting the car. Denise held that same card)_

_ Steve: _

_Read it_

_(Steve made sure his words were strong enough to distract Denise from Susie’s stealth, given how she was a meter away and with a gun pointed at the blind girl’s noggin. It only bothered Susie at the time that she’d have to kill Steve in the process to get a fatal angle.)_

_ Denise: _

_I’m…sorry Denise, they-_

_(Susie only wanted to pull the trigger once Denise finished reading each word rather than right away: a mistake she realized once it was too late)_

_ Denise: _

_-Had my family._

_(Susie hesitated for almost five seconds: more than too much time it took for Denise to want to reply, and enough for the bullet to get lodged inside her noggin)_

<END OF FLASHBACK>

Jeremy:

It would seem the Boss was trying to put you through the exact same situation again, minus the trust the other time around.

Susie:

Whatever, it was stupid on its part to leave me for dead once I hijacked that ambulance and got rid of the witnesses.

Jeremy:

Okay…that was harsh even for you, Sue. 

Susie:

As harsh as what the boss did to me and my family? At least Steve was the only one in his to get snuffed!

Jeremy:

And you’re positive the situation only improved because of my supposedly ‘cut’ ties with this mob of yours?

Susie:

Even if anyone else in The Bilk Division knew you out of confidential emergency only, where else would you want me to take refuge?

_________________________________


	6. Chapter 5: Everybody's Fool

Chapter 5: Everybody’s Fool

 

 _‘Without the mask where will you hide, can’t find yourself lost in your lies. I know the truth now. I know who you are. And I don’t love you anymore’_ –Amy Lee

 

(Morton Goldthwait locks himself in a phone booth before pressing the phone to the side of his face and dialing a set of numbers)

 

Morton:

 

I’ve always kept my distance from squirrels.

 

(Silence)

 

Morton:

 

I can’t recall if it was popular mechanics or a biology book I was nosing around in when one got a foot away from me without my noticing. Once I did, it ran away. I wondered if it wanted something. Perhaps it was hungry because I was at the time, given how I was eating chips. So hoping it would return, I break a piece and leave it where it stood. It does and gladly munches on the piece. But then it stops and quickly sniffs the air.

 

(More silence)

 

Morton:

 

Does it sound possible for it to have gone into the trash bin next to me and gone away with an entire hamburger?  
  
(More silence)

 

Morton:

Yeah, I don’t think so either, especially since my only regret was not recording it…listen…one last question: are mice honest when they speak?

 

Marcus:

 

 Depends, do androids dream of electric sheep?

 

Morton:

 

Hmm, point taken.

 

Marcus:

And that’s all you need to know.

 

(Marcus, wearing a Rayman mask, hangs the telephone before continuing guard in an abandoned hospital.)  


_________________________________

 

(Marcus continued monitoring the corridors before he heard a strange noise across the halls. He moves closer to see a shadow go right inside a room)

 

Marcus:

  
Who is there! This is a restricted zone! Get out or I’ll be forced to shoot.

 

(Marcus quickly entered the room with a gun out)

 

Marcus:

Come out…or…I’m authorized to shoot!

 

The Shadow:

 

2012 called! It said ‘that’s what she said, not me’ woo hoo!

 

(Marcus immediately recognized it to be Jason’s voice inside the dark room full of boxes, which kept him from seeing the light switch properly)

 

Jason:

You get out of that pretense first, Marcus, or not only will I kill you but our friendship while we’re at it.

 

Marcus:

I…I…

 

(Marcus violently hesitates)

 

Marcus:

I…don’t know what you’re playing at, stranger, so make tracks or I **will** shoot.

 

Jason:

Then I’m afraid you asked for this.

 

(Jason threw, in an invisible direction, a USB drive with dual horns emerging)

 

Marcus:

 

Wait…this isn’t…

 

Jason:

 

MY World of Warquest golden orc expansion file? I know without Eric Idle’s haggling I would’ve needed a grand plus for this puppy even at Amazon dot com!

 

(Marcus gets flustered and removes his mask)

 

Marcus:

Dammit! Jason, you told me you lost it you compulsive fucking liar! It’s not even a joke what it took me to get this.

 

(Jason turns the lights on to reveal he was to his left)

 

Jason:

 

Oh, compared to my loss, it is, we’re just not laughing.

 

(Before Marcus could turn around, Jason round house kicks the gun away from Marcus’s disposal, allowing it to land on his hand)

 

Marcus:

 

Jason! Calm yourself-

 

BAM!

 

Marcus:

AAAAAH! MOTHER OF FUCKING FUCK!

 

(Jason shot Marcus on the foot)

 

Jason:

Gasp! Oh my God, Marcus! I am so tremendously so so sorry. Here I assumed you were just another GUTLESS COG IN THIS FUCKING TERRORIST MACHINE THAT ONLY ADAPTED ONE ARTIFICIAL TESTICLE TO MURDER THE LOVE OF LIFE I’LL EVER HOLD DEARLY ENOUGH TO DIMINISH THESE AMATEUR REBELS OUT OF EVEN MY PERIPHERAL VISION TO EXACT REVENGE UPON instead of my oldest friend.

 

BAM!

 

(Jason shot Marcus in the shoulder next, causing Marcus to fall backwards)

 

Marcus:

AAAH! Jason, stop man! Please, let’s just talk first!

 

(Jason knelt to look directly into Marcus’s face)

 

Jason:

 

Oh I’d love to, Marcus, but it just dawned on me: **what** oldest friend, right?

 

Marcus:

 

Whatever, I’ll…I’ll fucking tell you the name of the boss.  
  
Jason:

  
YOU’RE FUCKED RIGHT YOU WILL! OR ELSE I’LL BLOW BOTH OF OUR FUCKING BRAINS OUT RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

 

(Marcus was slightly more surprised even after the bullet wounds)

 

Marcus:

 

…you would go that-

 

Jason:

Less questions, MORE ANSWERS!

 

(Jason puts the gun down as Marcus stands up)

 

Marcus:

All right, it’s…it’s…

 

(Marcus closes his eyes before kicking the gun back at himself and holding the trigger pointed at Jason)

 

Marcus:

…It’s time to give Slugman and Leechboy a proper series finale.

 

(Jason also closes his eyes)

 

BAM!

 

_________________________________


	7. Chapter 6: Disclosures

Chapter 6: Disclosures  
  
(Morton exited the telephone booth and approached what looked like a dead hobo. He sees it has a sign that reads “Go on, turn around” before the loading of a gun is heard)

 

Morton:

You want me to see your face…in the dark.  
  
(The one holding the gun wore a Mario mask)

 

Mario mask:

It’s a way to let you take pride in your cowardice.

 

Morton:

How does that prove I’m a…oh.

 

Mario mask:

 

Knowing who I am is enough for me, how about you, Morton?

 

Morton:

I always knew the future changed events. Taking the most current, one by one, and making it a second longer…older, or in our ‘cowardly’ case, weaker. But my query to you is why…why does a second need to feel like a year?

 

Mario mask:

Days are long yet years are short. Blabbity blabbity bollocks! You knew as well as I did what we signed up for. You’re either with us and the new Wii or it’s just you and your Atari, NES, or any other obsolete robot in the land that couldn’t keep up.  
  
Morton:

  
But I don’t get it. Ever since the foundation epoch with Pong, video games were made to entertain us like any other commodity such as board or card games. But then they suddenly serve as an art form from the modularity epoch in 76 to convergence in the new millennium. And maybe to imitate life a little once the Networked epoch took over in 2017.  
  
Mario mask:

What kind of epoch are we living in today?  
  
Morton:

 

For video games? I’m no historian, but the replication epoch sounds right about accurate in this time period.  
  
Mario mask:

Or how about just the great war on video games? Thanks to our no longer special but reemerged relationship with the UK, It’s not like experts, centuries from now, will be immature enough to call it the ‘War on religion’ rather than ‘terror’, even if they are the so-called winners.

Morton:  
  
Great war?  
  
Mario mask:   
  
Entertainment, artforms, exercise, bloody education, love interests in the case of Japan’s brilliant nut jobs, video games can be anything by now depending on the value you think they deserve. But whether they exist or not, much like that same terror, we’ll always live in a world where ugly addictions with pretty names will be abused as many times as can be and the masses will never stop enjoying them. Thus deemed the ‘new drug’ for us.  
  
Morton:  
  
Is it then? Is it possible to blame the lost generation I’m part of?  
  
Mario Mask:  
  
Even if it was easier to resign from it than it was with us, which thanks for the reminder-  
  
BAM! BAM!  
  
(The member shot Morton two times in the back)  
  
Mario Mask:  
  
Kid yourself however many times, ask everyone else: We’re ALL a lost generation.  
  
(Morton faced the member as it crawled with its last words)  
  
Morton:  
  
Why?  
  
(The masked member looked at its weapon)  
  
Mario Mask:  
  
By leaving this fine too for dead, someone was bound-  
  
Morton:  
  
No…Why **this** way…Jason?  
  
(The member quickly looked at Morton writhing in the ground and approached him slowly. He took off his mask so Morton could see his face)  
  
Jason:  
  
This life, as it seems, is slow and painful enough. I know I’m only taking the slow away when I wanted you to catch up, so let me ease the painful with a little secret.  
  
(Jason closed in on Morton’s ear)  
  
Jason:  
My sister’s diary had 51% of you compared to any other dude.  
  
(Morton smiled amidst the agony)  
  
Morton:  
  
Thank you.  
  
Jason:  
  
You’ll be thanking him later on, so on behalf of the boss soon enough: doh itashimashite.  
  
(Jason walked away as the love in Marcus’s glare finally departs before his life)

_________________________________

  
(Jeremy and Susie tried to sleep, yet the past seemed to be the extra roommate that drank espresso at night)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
…Sigh, well it’s 11:30, and here we are.  
  
Susie:

In this world, the strong ones are seldom tired.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
How about the smart or wise?

Susie:  
  
Do you even know what smart means if you’re associating it with wisdom?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Right, I’d have to associate it with strong to murder people.  
  
Susie:  
  
Right, except a nightmare of severing the hands of innocent children, compared to seeing it with your own two eyes, feels totally realistic. I welcome you to joke about my eye patch too since you’re obviously that thick in the head.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Whoa! Sorry Sue, I’ll be quiet now. I just want to try and help you, but…I’m not like Calvin.  
  
Susie:  
  
In what sense other than you having all your organic body parts still attached to you? Cause Calvin-  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Well here’s a secret of my own for you: He’s imperfect beyond even that. Deep down he’s rather…envious of everything with everyone except us.  
  
Susie:  
  
Us? All of a sudden.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
He knows both of us…well, at least he knows ‘Sue’.  
  
Susie:  
  
Almost a decade apart never stopped me from recognizing HIM on the day of his execution. I bet he’s pretending this whole Sue charade is legit if at least **he** ’s not that thick.  
  
Jeremy:

Well feel free to ask him yourself if he indeed isn’t.  
  
Susie:  
  
You could just tell me anything else he’s been through.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sheesh, suit yourself. Once upon a few years back, Calvin’s parents were on their way to that drunkaholic pseudo trailer trash that impulsed him to join the sect.

Susie:   
  
Sounds rough and vague.  
  
Jeremy:   
  
That’s always as far as I like to think about it.  
  
Susie:  
  
Really.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Fine, long story condensed, I met Calvin a day after my girlfriend of five years walked out on me.  
  
Susie:  
  
Ah, sorry for your loss.  
  
(Jeremy gave Susie an odd glare)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Uh…thanks.  
  
Susie:  
  
What? I really am.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Anyway, all that really mattered was how piss drunk, half pun intended, I was before I met him in a state ten times worse than mine.  
  
Susie:  
  
Calvin showed us both: when you’re miserable, you need someone more miserable than yourself.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Unless they’re trying to turn it into some kind of contest. I could’ve either sent him to the hospital or learned about how The Bilk Division wanted more of my endless association with them as I cured his wound like the quartermaster they took me for.  
  
Susie:  
  
Again, my deepest condolences for dragging you into what was supposed to be a onetime only kind of deal.   
  
Jeremy:  
  
Hey, if it helps, it gave Danny Boyle a run for his Oscar once Calvin’s real deal topped 127 hours.  
  
Susie:  
  
*Chuckle*  
  
Jeremy:  
  
And we’ve lived together ever since his parents were annihilated by the sect division.  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh boy, this is all my fault  
  
Jeremy:  
  
It’s all right, Sue, he told me, and I quote ‘They were more targets than parents once I joined the clan”, which served as a surprise for me since he never shared much emotion whenever I hung out with him.  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh I doubt that.  
  
Jeremy:   
  
Really, it was only until you showed up. In fact, he doesn’t so much wear his heart on his sleeve but rather hide it, with all his hatred, as though he’s ‘waiting for his time to come’  
  
Susie:  
  
What time? You’re not talking about the morbid kind, are you?  
  
Jeremy:

I can only hope not. Then of course he also said ‘My time will come, they’ll see’ as if…he **is** plotting revenge, I’m not too sure myself.  
  
Susie:

Maybe he finally did snap out of waiting if he said he was happy to have me on his side: He’s preparing as we speak.  
  
Jeremy:   
  
Could be. Oh, before I forget, you mentioned subordinates don’t have to wear those apparatuses then?  
  
Susie:  
  
You mean the wristband? Nope, It’s like the Boss mentioned earlier: only the high and normal bosses, such as myself, are free of the burden.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Then…congrats on being the only ex members to make it out alive.  
  
Susie:  
  
Meh, there was this other guy, Morton Goldthwaite, who managed to deactivate the SARS code from the database. Who knows where he is now.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Indeed, who **really** knows…  
  
(Susie yawned worthy of a lioness comparison)  
  
Susie:  
  
I’m ready to keep going tomorrow.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sounds about right, goodnight.  
  
Susie:  
  
Night.  
  
(Jeremy shuts off the light as they both go underneath the covers)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Are you planning to tell Calvin who you really are, though?  
  
Susie:  
  
Not before the Boss does…I mean…I’m all for jumping on Calvin’s payback bandwagon, but I don’t want to be the one getting in the way unless I can help.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Believe me, if the boss knew you were as skilled as you are, you’ll be more than enough help.  
  
Susie:  
  
I know you’ve helped enough, Jeremy, but we’ll see how it goes tomorrow, so goodnight.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Yeah…goodnight…Sue.  
_________________________________


	8. Chapter 7: Foreign Threat

Chapter 7: Foreign Threat   
  
(Susie enjoyed a long relaxing shower enough to disregard her lack of dry clothing. She dried herself with one towel as she used a longer one to hang over her neck and shoulders, covering her breasts. Susie then entered the kitchen to notice Jeremy and Calvin eating pancakes before they looked one moment and away the next)  
  
Susie:  
  
What’s wrong, Calvin? Am I not ‘dolled up’ as I am?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Sue…’dolled up’ is…for God’s sakes, having clothes on!  
  
Susie:  
  
So it does, **doesn’t** it, Jeremy?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I’ll get you something soon, promise! Just try a bigger towel next time.  
  
Susie:  
  
Fuck any of that for now. Let’s just start on today.  
  
(Susie took a chair and sat parallel to them)  
  
Calvin:  
  
So you’re ready to get it over with then. To take on the head of this country, and by interchanneled default, the world.  
  
Susie:  
  
Actually, I kind of wanted to speak to you about that.  
  
(Susie was close to speaking before Calvin’s robotized arm gesture ceases her)   
  
Calvin:  
  
Last night told me enough.  
  
(Suie was shocked at the potential implications that remark entailed)  
  
Susie:

So…now you-  
  
Calvin:  
  
Know a fraction’s fraction, Sue, but enough to be ready.  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh.  
  
(Jeremy, with his eyes still bandaged by his hands, placed pancakes at the closest of Susie’s location)  
  
Calvin:  
  
And Just as we know enough, we also have enough.  
  
(Calvin places a peculiarly shaped rifle on the table, fascinating Susie at first glance)  
  
Susie:

Is this some kind of….  
  
Calvin:

This is known as a Bushmaster ACR, 5.56 Nato caliber.  
  
Susie:  
  
Ok, but it’s not the kind of firearm only the military personnel can use due to preliminary access, is it?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Oh, you’d be surprised by the measures we’d taken to surpass that kind of personnel for a mission like this.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Now here comes the best part.  
  
Susie:  
  
What? You have more?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Heh, why use words to answer your question?  
  
(Jeremy walked near the stove and flipped one of the Bunsen burners to reveal a hidden compartment of buttons and pushed a set. Afterwards, the fridge opened up what appeared at first glance to be a hidden apartment of weapons. Calvin walked towards them)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Hacking has its benefits only when the time is at its most adequate.  
  
Susie:  
  
That…is a lot of toys.  
  
(Susie closes in and gets a hold of one of them)  
  
Calvin:  
  
As much as I’d love to open up a fastidious sex and violence debate, let’s get one thing out of the way first.  
  
(Calvin took out an M660 calculator, with the screen pointed at Susie)  
  
Susie:  
  
I’m only kidding, Calvin. It’s not like I’m shy myself…nice calculator by the way.  
  
Calvin:  
  
First off I doubt it if you knew what this was. Second, you want us to go to war with the sect, right Sue?  
  
(Susie didn’t know how to answer before Calvin faced the calculator and began a seemingly demanding speech)  
  
Calvin:  
  
This headquarters was made by the hundreds of us during its hatching years as an initiative assessment by to its founder, Himoneta Bilk, to see how far we would go to proceed in the USA’s streak on fooling the world over with video games now. What they don’t know is that Japan has finally retaliated, after what happened in the second world war, with a vengeance of its own: The Quarkyonic bomb, a bomb that has been proven to take down twice the volume of its founding country, and therefore, almost the entirety of North America if not the United States alone. If this sect is shut down the proper way, we can be at peace with ourselves as much as Japan. If the boss wins, its victory over its excess of members will detonate a Third World War that will activate that same pluralism the English empire has failed to take responsibility for by letting us make the same mistakes rather than detain them.  
  
Susie:

Oh geez! I…I didn’t know.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Nor will you have to worry because with just us, I can rig the system unlike anyone else and let the radar know what’s coming. We’ll show you who we’re fucking with, what we’re capable of, and shut down more than this implicit vengeance known as this sect: We’ll shut down whoever you are!  
  
Susie:  
  
…Okay, but why direct it at me as though it was my doing?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Because this calculator, Sue, is a camera, that I only turned on once it faced me if it’ll soothe than mentality of yours.  
  
(Susie didn’t know whether to feel disgusted or confused)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Yeah, that’s right: the seond half of everything I just said was directed at someone else.  
  
_________________________________  
  
(A giant room resembling a faux convention full of computers, gadgets, and masked members, by the hundreds, saw everything on every computer system that was there. The High Boss, wearing a Ganondorf mask, emerged from the topmost room before a member wearing a sly cooper mask randomly approached it)  
  
Member:  
  
High Boss! Our radars are incapable of pinpointing their location. What if they disrupt the final mainframe?  
  
High Boss:  
  
It would be an obscene impossibility to suspect they’d go that far.  
  
Member:  
  
You’re sure?  
  
High Boss:  
  
The Bilk Division is a relationship amongst twelve different countries in the world, Japan being but one minor superpower. It would be a sin to think there has been a single member to leave without the proper excommunication. Believe me, we’ll all be in good terms with this conquest.  
  
Member:  
  
Ah good, I guess.  
  
High Boss:  
  
You guess well, that’s that. Pity nobody else was listening, now were they?  
  
Member:  
  
Everyone is always attentive to your- AAAUGH!  
  
(The member fell down the stairs and into a seizure-like state before dying.)

High Boss:  
  
If anyone wisely needs me, I’ll be in the Administrator’s office.  
  
(The Boss walked back into the room it emerged from previously.)  
  
_________________________________  



	9. Chapter 8: The Devil's Cry

Chapter 8: The Devil’s Cry  
  
(Jeremy and Susie were about 25 metres away from an abandoned Catholic School being guarded by members)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
And I’m sure back on Mars they’re guarding atheist schools because somewhere in the middle east, Jewish schools aren’t anyway, right?  
  
Susie:  
  
You’re positive this is it?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Calvin’s the one infiltrating it via tech. If it’s not it then we’ll know. And before I forget, have you ever seen ‘The Shawshank Redemption’?  
  
Susie:  
  
Do I look like I watch movies that came out sixty years ago?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
No then, either way, looky.  
  
(Jeremy pulls out a small insect from his pocket)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I was also going to ask if you’ve ever seen either ‘Joe’s Appartment’ or ‘Wanted’, cause I’ve made them by the millions.  
  
Susie:  
  
Why do you watch movies about cockroaches anyway?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
To surprise you as much as them, don’t worry.  
  
Susie:  
  
With what at this point?  
  
(The school speakers made a loud whistle noise before the intercom of Calvin’s voice came on)  
  
Calvin:   
  
ATTENTION, BILK DIVISION! BE IT BY CHOICE OR AGAINST IT, YOU HAVE ALL BECOME OBLIVIOUS SLAVES OF YOUR OWN CONQUEST! MUCH LIKE THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE IN 1212, YOU HAVE ALL BEEN FORCED TO DRINK THE NEVERTHELESS ACIDIC MOISTURE OF YOUR OWN SWEAT AS IF IT WAS LEMONADE FOR SO LONG. HAVE YOUR TASTE BUDS GOTTEN USED TO THIS BECAUSE IT TURNS ONCE GREAT HUMANS LIKE YOURSELVES INTO NUREMBERG DEFENDED ZOMBIES THANKS TO THIS DOCTRINE OF DENIAL YOU ERRONEOUSLY FIND NO USE IN TURNING BACK FROM?  
  
(Susie, like the other members, was surprised. A few members pointed at the principal’s office, where the intercom originated, and ran towards it.)  
  
Calvin:  
  
This dawn I bring you the sunrise of a new option: Retain the true power of innocence by renouncing this so called Holy crusade once a soundtrack emerges and flee away from these delusions to a home that shouldn’t need to force such beliefs into your ripe minds. Stay and allow your so-called sins to be the subject of agonizing atonement-  
  
(Once the members opened the Principal’s door to see it empty, they also found the exception of a walkie-talkie taped to that same microphone)  
  
Calvin:  
  
-until the end, the judgment night.  
  
(Calvin emerged in the middle of Susie and Jeremy, with a walkie talkie in his grasp)  
  
Susie:  
  
You’re one to make an entrance.  
  
Calvin:  
  
So will you, Sue, so will you.  
  
(The Devil May Cry 3 theme by Montek goes on as cockroaches began swarming. More than a thousand of them surround the members as they begin to enter in panic. Some try shooting at them in bad aim while others leave as instructed. One member, wearing a Daxter mask, holds one of them)  
  
Daxter mask:  
  
Who invited these little shits!?  
  
(The same member then takes a closer look at its thorax)  
  
Daxter mask:  
  
Wait a…  
  
(It quickly realizes the roaches are time bombs once that same roach being held surpasses 0:01)  
  
Daxter mask:  
  
HOLY MOTHER OF FUC-  
  
KA-BOOM!!!  
  
(The inner workings of the catholic school began falling in shambles as the roaches exploded. Members scattered the same way the roaches once did as tons of dynamite followed)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Now’s your chance, Sue! Go!  
  
(Susie ran towards the ramp that aimed for a stained glass window that made up the exterior of the school. The soundtrack’s choir departed for a more nu metal riff the closer she ran)  
  
_Steal a soul for a second chance, but you will never become a man.  
My chosen mojo makes me stronger, in a life that craves the hunger  
A freedom and a quest for life  
  
_ (Once at a metre away from the ramp’s edge, Susie performs a Fosbury Flop while spinning in the air and breaks into the glass)  
  
_Until the end the Judgment Night  
  
_ (At the moment of landing, Susie ran towards the principal’s office, hoping the High boss made its way there by now, and began shooting any member that blocked her path, let alone tried shooting her down)  
  
_Stepping forth a cure for soul’s demise  
Reap the tears of the victim’s cries  
Yearning more to hear the suffer  
Of a demon as I put it under  
  
_ (She shot anything that tried to cross her path, dodging bullets and hiding in as much as the cockroaches’ debris as possible)  
  
_Killed before, a time to kill them all  
Passed down the righteous law  
Serve a justice that dwells in me  
  
_ (Two members with berreta’s forced her in hiding behind a flipped table. She also realized her amount of bullets decreased, so she took out two magazines, threw them at two approaching members, causing them to fall unconscious in the process, and reverberate back at her guns to reload.)  
  
_LIFELESS CORPSE AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE!_  
  
(For every explosive smoke she found, Susie made herself into that same hallway that might lead to finding the Principal’s office, where the boss might have hidden)  
  
_THE EYE CAN SEE!_  
_THE EYE CAN SEE!_  
_THE EYE CAN SEE!_  
_THE EYE CAN SEE!_  
  
(There were a dozen times a dozen members heading her way, so she hid behind more smoke before unplugging a grenade, threw it at their direction, and hid until she heard an explosion. Once she heard, Susie made her way towards the hall. Before she could keep running, a seemingly unarmed yet frightened member blocked her path)  
  
_The eye can see  
  
_ (Susie lowered her weapon, hesitating out of spite. The member then screamed in fear as it took out two guns before Susie looked away to shoot straight through him or her, killing them as she made her way deplorably)  
  
_Bless me with the leaf off of a tree  
On it I see the freedom reign  
_  
(Before Susie began to regret this entire ordeal, her earphone finally went on)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Sue, Are you in there? This is Calvin, over!  
  
Sue:  
  
Roger, I’m on my way, over and out!  
  
(The principal’s office was as expected: empty and fragmented by the cockroaches.)  
  
_We are falling the light is calling  
Tears inside me calm me down  
Midnight calling mist of resolving  
Crown me with the pure green leaf  
  
_ (Before the song could end, Susie spotted two members unarmed this time, choosing the diplomatic approach)  
  
_Praise to my father blessed by the water  
Black night, dark sky, the devil’s cry._  
  
(Susie grabbed one member by the neck, removed its Sheik mask, and looked at the other member with the Bayonetta mask)  
  
Susie:  
  
Where is the boss?  
  
(Susie punched who she didn’t know was Lucy Van Pelt at the time. The other member tried her best not to allow her sympathy to shrink)  
  
Susie:  
  
Where…Is…The Boss?  
  
(Susie punched her even harder the second time, noticing the flinch on the other member. Susie asked for a third time with a singy songy voice)  
  
Susie:  
  
Where…is…the bo-oss?  
  
THWACK!!  
  
(By then Susie had two black eyes and a swollen cheek. The Bayonetta member pointed towards the doors that led to the church side of the school, allowing Lucy loose and for her to enter them. The same church appeared to be only one year old in its state of degradation. For every step, Susie discovered something new such as pages of broken hymn books scattered all over the floor, as well as broken wood. The seats were all misplaced, some even flipped)  
  
Susie:  
  
Pffft! Those who do learn really are doomed to watch others repeat it!  
  
(Susie looked at the centre of the altar and the crossing, which held a giant pointy cross albeit with one difference: round points that formed a circle on the three topmost points, which made the same cross nearly resemble a swastika.)

Ominous Voice:  
  
Ginormous deal, am I wrong?  
  
(What looked like a fat orange tabby cat revealed itself to Susie)  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
The fuhrer himself abandoned his Jewish roots for a more…positive inclination if it was to ally itself with Japan, especially when considering the symbol’s roots.  
  
Susie:  
  
Are…are you-  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
Communicating telepathically? What on earth gave you that notion? Even a text messaging generation such as yourself could’ve been capable of looking it up if millennial is too sophisticated to serve as a compliment. And they call my species lazy.  
  
Susie:  
  
Okay, whatever, I’m looking for the boss.  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
And not AT him?  
  
Susie:  
  
Exactly, the boss was clearly too clever to hide behind the-  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
Principal’s Office? Yeah, a predictable choice indeed with or without telekinetic charm, even you have to agree on-  
  
Susie:  
  
Give me a break, Mister Kitty, My patience is at its end. One of the members explicitly admitted the boss was here, so we can do this the easy way, or -   
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
Or what? The way of exacting those same words of ‘great vengeance and furious anger’ Sam L Jack said that aren’t even in The Broble regardless of their equally fictitious-  
  
(Susie takes out a colt and aims it at point blank range towards the cat)  
  
Susie:  
  
Listen here, grumpy cunt, I’m responsible for a massacre back at that school side of this district, so if you don’t tell me, asap, where the real boss is…  
  
(Then out of nowhere, the earth beneath her begins to rumble, enough for Susie to fall over. A sea of mice began to envelop that same cat she wasn’t afraid of at first)  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
You have preached patience.  
  
(As Susie began getting up once the earthquake ceased, she saw the mice took a giant form of that same cat, which jumped into the giant swastika cross and hung from there, as though mimicking a crucifixion, when in reality it was ready to pounce on Susie)  
  
  
Big Orange Cat:   
  
But your mediator has not come and will never come!  
  
Susie:  
  
Huh…text messaging generation.  
  
(Susie ran for about three meters away from where the orange cat slowly yet heavily landed on.  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
One of the benefits of accepting a neo socialism in this country, and by inevitable default, admitting we’re not just fucking the world over, but due to that, accepting the English empire’s recidivism in order to reestablish ourselves as the original superpower so as to avoid Japan’s wrath and accept its undeniable tact.  
  
SMASH!  
  
(Susie tried hiding behind the cat, and a set of those same broken benches)  
  
Big Orange Cat:  
  
Think twice, Night Owl. I may be hiding behind the mask of a thousand eyes, but it beats the obvious: HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT!  
  
(Susie could barely catch a breath as every hiding spot lasted less than a second for her while being chased by this behemoth. As she continued running, it finally occurred to Susie as she reached inside her backpack)  
  
Susie:  
  
This is why uncle John gave you up, Garfield.  
  
(Susie took out lasagna and, away from Garfield or any of the mice’s marginal visions, a bomb)  
  
Susie:  
  
Most cats are a lot more finicky.  
  
(Susie dynamically turns around)  
  
Susie:  
  
EAT LASAGNA, GARFIELD!  
  
(The giant-like Garfield hears the words and sees the lasagna fly in mid-air as he catches it with his mouth and swallows. Before he could say anything to retaliate, Garfield burps smoke)  
  
Susie:  
  
What was that **one** pun my older generation would have used? Something about ‘that was the bomb’ or close?  
  
Garfield:  
  
Fuck Mondays, I hate mankind.  
  
KA-BOOOOOM!  
  
(Thousands of mice, as well as Garfield’s remains, scattered everywhere, with half of those same rodents surviving the blast. Susie tiresomely sat on one of the benches before her earpiece went on after a minute of silence)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Did you defeat the boss? Over!  
  
Susie:  
  
Negative and out!  
  
Calvin:  
  
No? I could’ve sworn it had a thing for rodents.  
  
Susie:  
  
Don’t tell me you automatically assumed it was a cat.  
  
Another voice:  
  
Not necessarily.  
  
(Susie looked down to notice one mouse gets near her.)  
  
The Mouse:  
  
If there is anything we can do to thank you for liberating us of **our** equivalent of the High Boss…  
  
_________________________________  



	10. Chapter 9: The Psychic Rodent

Chapter 9: The Psychic Rodent

(Susie held the mouse out in her hand as Calvin and Jeremy continued to stare in disbelief)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
It figures something supernatural LIKE PSYCHIC RODENTS had to be brought into the reasonably scientific table LIKE MY EXPLODING COCKROACHES!  
  
Susie:  
  
Mellow down, Jere, His name is Ignatz, and he’s smater than the average talking mouse because he knows someone who in return knows the Boss’ real hideout.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Okay, past the whole telekinetic thing, Jeremy does raise some annoying yet good concerns: What do you know about the Bilk Division that we don’t, Ignatz?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
The old fashioned sense: The Bilk Division’s basis on video games, which roots back to a three structured film, something it didn’t give you for starters.  
  
Calvin:  
  
What does that specifically entail?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Let’s put it like this: What is…the most common, if not biggest trope, found in every single video game structure since the early 90s?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Including Action, MMORPG, First person shooter?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Etceteractly!  
  
(The entire group looks at Ignatz with morbid suspicion)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Yes.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Just the usual story mode: A hero living life like a fish inside of water, when.-  
  
Susie:  
  
An arbitrary set of events forced him or her out of it and trying to get back into the ocean! THAT MAKES SENSE!

Chapter 9: The Psychic Rodent

(Susie held the mouse out in her hand as Calvin and Jeremy continued to stare in disbelief)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
It figures something supernatural LIKE PSYCHIC RODENTS had to be brought into the reasonably scientific table LIKE MY EXPLODING COCKROACHES!  
  
Susie:  
  
Mellow down, Jere, His name is Ignatz, and he’s smater than the average talking mouse because he knows someone who in return knows the Boss’ real hideout.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Okay, past the whole telekinetic thing, Jeremy does raise some annoying yet good concerns: What do you know about the Bilk Division that we don’t, Ignatz?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
The old fashioned sense: The Bilk Division’s basis on video games, which roots back to a three structured film, something it didn’t give you for starters.  
  
Calvin:  
  
What does that specifically entail?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Let’s put it like this: What is…the most common, if not biggest trope, found in every single video game structure since the early 90s?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Including Action, MMORPG, First person shooter?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Etceteractly!  
  
(The entire group looks at Ignatz with morbid suspicion)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Yes.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Just the usual story mode: A hero living life like a fish inside of water, when.-  
  
Susie:  
  
An arbitrary set of events forced him or her out of it and trying to get back into the ocean! THAT MAKES SENSE!  
  
Jeremy:  
  
What makes sense?  
  
Susie:  
  
The Boss might want us to find them! It all might be a ruse, red herring! A trap even if we don’t keep our guard up! So why not swap?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
And leading it towards us would be any different?  
  
Susie:  
  
It’s better if it means finding its weakness.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
How are we so sure the High Boss even has one?  
  
Susie:

Don’t you remember that chat I had with it back when I was still interviewed? It mentioned it to be like ‘an aristocratic board game’ for it. And if Ignatz is right, we can find that very kryptonite and lure it right at us.  
  
(Jeremy sincerely looked at the mouse and then away)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Right, we’re looking for its SUPPOSED weakness, is there a way of finding it.  
  
Susie:   
  
Haven’t you been listening? Ignatz has an in on someone who does!  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Is that a yes or a no?  
  
Susie:  
  
Yes, we know who knows where the boss’s weakness may be, NO, we don’t know know where that same weakness is.  
  
(Jeremy looks at all of them in unison before directing his attention at Suisie)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sue, um, a quick word, s’il vous plait?  
  
(Jeremy and Susie walk three meters away from Calvin and Ignatz)  
  
Susie:  
  
Good French, Jeremy, even though you don’t pronounce it as ‘plate’ seeing as the last cons-  
  
Jeremy:  
  
What if this is exactly like the Hitchhicker’s guide to the galaxy and Mickey here wants to make sure we don’t make it to the Boss at the end of the universe?  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh for crying…okay, Jeremy, do you have any better ideas than the one we managed to carry out and lead us to him?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
No, except that red herring mentioned earlier might be among us for all I can tell.  
  
(Susie changes her tone to a whisper)  
  
Susie:  
  
SHUSH! Do you want the mouse to hear you?  
  
(Susie and Jeremy notice Calvin and Jeremy talking about something alternative)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
They weren’t even looking at us.  
  
Susie:  
  
And that proves it! If he’s not trustworthy due to that, what is he for?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
What?! But…I don’t know!  
  
Susie:  
  
Look, I don’t have to imagine how tired you are, but we need to find a way to stop this, even if it means making new friends that aren’t even our species.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Granted, but every man, woman, and child for themselves if he stabs us in the back.  
  
(Jeremy leaves)  
  
Susie:   
  
If it were that way I may as well stab out my other eye to save us the trouble!  
  
(Late that day, Jeremy came up to a building aping the Wall Street edifice called ‘The Orwell’ dressed up as a blonde delivery woman as she hoisted a giant box on top of a wheelcart. They made it past two automatic doors and came as far as two members, one with a Mister game and watch mask, and another with a Duke Nukem mask, holding rifles on guard.)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Special delivery!  
  
Mister Game and watch mask:  
  
Who sent you?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
That…would be classified.  
  
Duke Nukem Mask:  
  
Then what’s in the box?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
A hundred Gwenyth Paltrow heads, what’s it to you?  
  
Mister Game and watch mask:  
  
How do we know there isn’t a live human being in there?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Are you implying a person can survive in something sturdy like this without air holes?  
  
Duke Nukem Mask:  
  
Y…yes!  
  
(At that moment, Jeremy took out an AK47, giving the members an idea he was going to take them down, before  turning the gun downwards at the box and shooting a couple of holes in it)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Oh how about that…you were WRONG.  
  
(The members open up to see an ambiguous to their eyes girl dead, at first glance, in front of them, with a bullet riddled sign that read ‘The Boss’ Dirty Laundry’)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
If it wanted her dead rather than alive then the High Boss would have sent someone other than a transy to get the job done.  
  
(Both members nearly tremble in fear as Jeremy holds out a clipboard)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Can one of you sign this now, please?  
  
Duke Nukem Mask:  
  
Fine! Sheesh!  
  
Mister Game and watch mask:  
  
I take it you and Lucy here were on your…heh…blood shedding cycle, eh? *wink*  
  
(The other member signs the clipboard’s notice and hands it to a now rage riddled Jeremy)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Fuck this, I’ll show you blood shedding cycle, SUE!!!  
  
(Susie appears from behind the two members and knocks them out before shooting the rest of the guards  
  
Susie:  
  
How’d it feel to kill yonglings?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
As morbid as reality gets, for some reason even beyond the most universal comprehension, taking her down felt distinctly…reinvigorating.  
  
Susie:  
  
You mean like being a drag queen?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
So long as I wasn’t ‘8 months due’ this time.  
  
Susie:  
  
Story for another life. You take care of the remains. I’ll head upstairs.  
  
(Susie entered an elevator)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Ah, the pointlessness of Hollywood’s aid between Brits in their renowned spy thrillers if their equally renowned whim for dragplay is too good for even the very latest of Ian Fleming’s adaptations.  
  
(Once she departed the elevator, Susie walked down a hall adorned with specific animal heads: a goat, a pig, two crocodiles, a zebra, a fuzzy cat, and a duck wearing a combat helmet. Once she entered the office, it was empty at first glance. Susie sarcastically smiled)  
  
Susie:  
  
I was wrong: The High Boss wouldn’t have to be stupid and megalomaniacal to wait here.  
  
(It was on her way back that Susie clapped her hands to keep a knife from falling on her head)  
  
Rat:  
  
Raw, unkind words from a latter trophy in the High Boss’ hall of hands.  
  
(As the Rat summersaulted midair and into Susie’s way, daggers kept forcing her to dodge, all but one which got her shoulder)  
  
Susie:  
  
AIE! Take it easy, Rat! I’m all for sports, just not the blood enlaced kind.  
  
Rat:   
  
Humans or not, we were not made to suffer this century’s demands for three jobs, not even two! It’s for that reason why we hate one another, the reason why The United States is destined to begin the Third World War. The enemy of my enemy is my worst enemy, making the former enemy my real friend. Hence why the Boss decided to give me this post.  
  
Susie:  
  
Only due to its affinity for rodents, of course, but let’s not beat around the shrub here: It also lives for recruiting those it plans to liquidate anyhow.  
  
Rat:  
  
And I take it I’m supposed to be one of them.  
  
Susie:  
  
Speaking as someone who got rid of them for the boss-  
  
(Susie head-butts Rat unconscious)  
  
Susie:  
  
Old Habits…well you know, this being a building under fire and whatnot.  
  
(Rat woke up to notice he was tied up)  
  
Rat:  
  
What is this?  
  
Susie:  
  
If the boss knew I was going to take you out, why would it hire you to preserve its weakness?  
  
Rat:  
  
First of all, NO! And second…how did you know?  
  
Susie:  
  
A, I’m not retarded, and B, Ignatz the psychic rodent. You have him to regard for knowledge.  
  
Rat:  
  
Ooooh…right, yup, good old trustworthy kin, looking out against one another, you’ve got that right. As for the location, try Kitano Avenue 492!  
  
Susie:  
  
…AAAaaaaaallrighty then, thanks for the gnarly shoulder wound that’s bound to scar. A testament to your best.  
  
Rat:  
  
So that’s it? You’re not planning on killing me?  
  
Susie:  
  
お前はもう死んでいる

 _Omae wa mou shin deru_  
  
(Susie threw a pill at Rat as she also undid the ropes.)  
  
Rat:  
  
Knowing the language’s origin, that sounds painful.  
  
Susie:  
  
Worry not, there is none.  
  
(Susie turned around and walked towards the exit. Once she reached for the door knob, Rat took out a switchblade and fiercely hopped onto Susie’s head. A second before he sunk the knife deep into her noggin, Rat began trembling violently, more and more each passing second)  
  
Susie:  
  
Side effects, however, teehee.  
  
(Soon Rat was falling into a heavy seizure that only lasted once foam began to cascade from his mouth. He had a few words left before Susie shut the door)  
  
Rat:  
  
You may be able to prolong your life, but it’s not like you can escape your inevitable death, is it.  
  
(Susie tried not to turn around but rather leave until Rat’s tone of voice changed to that same demonic tenor of a voice scrambler any member occupied, including and especially the High Boss)  
  
Rat:  
  
How pathetic, I would have asked for my true identity.  
  
(Susie’s eyes enlarged and felt truly compelled to turn around and grab hold of the barely breathing Rat)  
  
Susie:  
  
You know it? TELL ME! TELL ME RIGHT NOW!!!  
  
(Rat lightly chuckled as his body disintegrated like a gust of sand. His head remained for two seconds, enough to reply)  
  
Rat:  
  
Sorry…I’m dead.  
  
(The rodent was completely gone, leaving Susie in the dark about things she didn’t know)  
  
_________________________________  
  
(Jeremy continued to stand guard before a tiny voice caught his attention)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
When you think about it, this Van Pelt kid might also get us in on another former member.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I know who you mean, but given how we’re the rare few aware of his identity, his response might scream-  
  
(Jeremy looks down to see it was Ignatz)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
-Oh…what do you want?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Yeah, but the poor kid’s probably been through enough in his lifetime-  
  
Jeremy:  
  
No, I mean it, Ignatz: What do you want with me already?  
  
(Jeremy was unaware of the Duke Nukem member regaining consciousness behind him as it pointed a gun at Jeremy)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Oh…we’re still on that then…well now that you’ve called me by name…  
  
(A loud bang interrupted his words. Jeremy could not believe what he saw as he turned to his side: a floating bullet, metres away from the same member that shot it. Then, without warning, the member’s head explodes as the bullet ricochets, leaving Jeremy in silence as he looked back at Ignatz’s glowing eyes)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
That…was pretty solid.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
What? Ripping off Scanners?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
If it meant saving my life, let’s call it an homage, thanks.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Happy to pay tribute to a movie I just spoiled myself of.  
_________________________________


	11. Chapter 10: No Sweet Certainty

Chapter 10: No Sweet Certainty  
  
(Calvin sat on a fountain’s edge, holding that same tracking device given to him by Jeremy. Susie approaches the same fountain and sat next to him)  
  
Susie:  
  
How’s it feel?  
  
Calvin:  
  
What?  
  
Susie:  
  
To have the, um…  
  
(Susie pointed at Calvin mechanical arm)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Oh, the arm…it’s not easy, but I got used to it.  
  
Susie:  
  
Jeremy told me about you…to keep it short, he said you were once very shy before you met me…again.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Eh, what would Jeremy know beyond his biomechanical teachings? He still thinks I saved **his** life when I ruined his suicide.  
  
Susie:  
  
Ruined? You changed his mind completely, that should account for something.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Honestly, I can’t even tell if he was set on doing it or not. All I can do is blame fate like everyone else for such an arbitrary coincidence, even if my problem was bigger than his.  
  
Susie:  
  
And there you have it: You knew what real pain felt like, so there was a chance he would’ve turned back on the antifreeze.  
  
Calvin:  
  
The possibilities were endless after I joined the Bilk Division. It was only when I saw the rawer, darker side of it that I accepted what I was getting into despite the real pain I’d have to face to go where Jeremy wanted to at that time.  
  
Susie:  
  
And for that, Calvin, I envy your innocence and courage.  
  
(Calvin raised an eyebrow)  
  
Calvin:  
  
I’ll try getting behind innocence until proven otherwise, but how has any of that involved-  
  
(Susie grabs Calvin’s mechanical arm and places it over Susie’s eye patch)  
  
Susie:  
  
Feel it? There is nothing but a numb pressure you knew was fear until enough pain made it so delusional, even death lost any meaning despite it being a part of life.  
  
Calvin:  
  
I stopped fearing death because it was the exact opposite: something that will happen anyway unless I don’t care enough to…prolong it.  
  
(Susie returned a stunned glare)  
  
Susie:  
  
What **I** feel, after all that I’ve done, is what you might feel better if you still had your arm: a hollow space that reminds you how you’re now nothing more than the one eyed queen in this land of the blind. As if I inherited another throne that makes me stronger at the cost of half my indispensable vision. As if killing a blind girl and her boyfriend made me inherit their relationship and what it was all along.  
  
(Calvin recoils his arm after thinking it all through)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Well hey, you know what they say about sacrifices, and I’d say you definitely showed the boss an eye for an army with all that firepower. Something I could never do.  
  
Susie:  
  
Maybe, but it was never without my fear of death…the day I discovered two heads was not enough to stop a bullet, that has kept my adrenaline alive whenever I made sure anyone else met it. How do you do it?  
  
Calvin:  
  
What? Avoid fearing a long awaiting deadline?  
  
Susie:  
  
Aren’t you ever haunted by regrets or something? I mean hey, even Deadpool killed more people defensively than mercilessly.  
  
Calvin:  
  
A gig is a gig to the gigth power, I don’t see a reason to start fearing now. But hey…you know.  
  
(Calvin faces Susie)  
  
Calvin:  
  
You’re nothing like any other girl I’ve ever met, Sue.  
  
(Susie blushes for a reason she can’t explain)  
  
Susie:  
  
I…doubt it. Badass doesn’t always mean ready to die.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Heh, but at least it doesn’t affect your comple-  
  
(They both look into each other for a short period of time before Ignatz interrupts the moment)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Jeremy and I found the coordinates to Kitano Avenue! Let’s make tracks while we can!  
  
(The Rat scurried off to allow them to prepare)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Listen, Sue, as long as the High Boss has this weakness within our reach, I swear to you, neither one of us needs to nor is going to die. With this weakness, we will shut down the Bilk Division and the country will be safe from any begrudging retaliation, okay?  
  
(Susie looked at him for a while, then away as if to preclude doubt before replying)  
  
Susie:  
  
Okay, Calvin, and in return, trust me on one easy fact if you can stop thinking about it:  
  
(Susie gets closer to Calvin’s face)  
  
Susie:  
  
Defensively, it’s never pointless, it’s not even wrong, to take a life.  
  
(Calvin only eyed away before getting closer to Susie’s face)  
  
Calvin:  
  
For me it is.  
  
(Their faces were an inch apart as their eyes almost closed simultaneously. Then Susie realized something horrendous: She didn’t want her feelings to sink yet if she still wanted this whole ‘Sue’ charade to carry on. Susie backed away as Calvin opened his eyes in bewilderment)   
  
Susie:  
  
We should really get going.  
  
(Susie stood up and walked away to follow Jeremy and Ignatz, leaving Calvin in the dark. That same obscurity was limited to him once Calvin spotted a photo a couple of yards away. He took a look at it before predicting who it might be)   
  
Calvin:  
  
The blonde girl.  
  
____________________________


	12. Chapter 11: The Final Bossdown

Chapter 11: The Final Bossdown  
  
(The last headquarters was found in the middle of nowhere excluding a forestall area: an asylum. Although it closely resembled a High School, the Asylum had no windowpanes, making it resemble a prison)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
An asylum on the outside, a perimeter of mazes full of some of the High Boss’s most trustworthy henchmen within, to the point they would treat the boss alone like an enemy to keep its secret best safe.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Pfft! Like that makes it any harder  
  
Susie:  
  
Knowing the boss, JEREMY, the most heavily guarded setting in the entire Sect’s map is said to possess a special kind of radar that detects any and all threats within a 50 mile hyper-spherical radius. The kind of tech that could corrupt the DEA if they even knew existed. It’s not even cynicism but reality to say they know everything we’ve been up to since we departed the last HQ.  
  
(Jeremy rolled his eyes)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Radar my hairs!...ok, that might’ve come out gross, but we have something that surpasses that, SUE! Which is Ignatz, who can easily disrupt their radar wave frequency in less than a snap, can’t you Iggy?  
  
(Jeremy looked at Ignatz, who in return saw the white silhouette of a wolf-like squirrel in his mind. A second later, Ignatz recoiled as though being hit by static electricity in the noggin)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
This…wow, I’ve never seen something of this nature before.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
…Please adjoin that with ‘in a good way’ so we don’t-  
  
Ignatz:  
  
I’m sorry, Jeremy, but that’s not just a radar…  
  
(Ignatz made eye contact with Jeremy dejectedly)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
The HQ…has a psychic rodent!  
  
_________________________________  
  
(They all face Ignatz with uncontrollable appal, especially on behalf of Jeremy)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
YOU MEAN OF THEIR OWN?!  
  
Ignatz:  
  
A squirrel, it must have been acquainted recently.  
  
Calvin:  
  
So there was no chance of you seeing this coming without the squirrel noticing.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Its radar is too strong. It’s like playing a game of tag underwater with a kraken sized octopus, even with a head-start of that same distance.  
  
Susie:  
  
Then they know to expect us, any other plans?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
You mean it’s not obvious.  
  
(Other than Ignatz, the group tried not to aim a tired and disillusioned glance at Jeremy)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Ignatz, we’ll need what’s left of your gang after that church fiasco almost caused the fourth and a half impact.  
  
_________________________________  
  
(A robot guard marched back into a dark portion of its spot before Susie sneaked up on it and twisted its head off. She moved on to the next until making it to the fifth, when one unexpectedly aimed a bazooka at her. Just as it was about to pull the trigger, a fire alarm caused even the ones she defeated to evacuate)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
J to the sizzle, how powerful are you proving to them? Over!  
  
(Susie took a stroll around the vacant corridors before accepting the conclusion the first half of the HQ was now entirely desolate)  
  
Susie:  
  
To be honest, this doesn’t feel like a final battle, over!  
  
Jeremy:  
  
That means it’s far from over yet, try heading to the yard.  
  
(Susie did, noticing the area of about 800 meters. The moment she took an extra step, hundreds, thousands maybe, of chipmunks landed in front of her dressed up as samurai. Susie was instantly petrified.)  
  
Susie:   
  
Jeremy? Deliver the memo to Ignatz: backup time starts now, over!  
  
(After that, Susie heard a squeak. She turned around to witness an army of those same mice she fought back at the first headquarter behind her)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
I can only hope we’re really that good if you show’d us who the real boss was.  
  
Susie:  
  
Even as a joke, that’s quite the arid dryness against a plethora of rurodent kenshins!  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Relax, all we need to do is get you across this field towards the last of the elite three.  
  
Susie:  
  
I just hope you mean as much business as these mother-  
  
BOOM!  
  
(One of the samurai chipmunks’ heads explode)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Hope is but optimistic denial if it’s woven with the thrax of sorrow, trust us.  
  
The chipmunks:  
  
WARE WA TADAIMA!!!!  
  
(The chipmunks charge into Susie’s direction)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Tactical mega sega 64x2 Alpha and omega, let it last and blast!  
  
(The chipmunks began exploding and flying backwards as the mice telekinetically moved them so as to open a path for Susie to go through)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Your chance is now, Sue, go go go!  
  
(Sue walked through the samurai chipmunks, like tightening through a barbed wire edge given the constantly poking swords. Once she made it into the other side, Susie entered and closed the door shut. The walls of this hallway were adorned with Rachel Ray pictures for no apparent reason as she walked to the door that perhaps read the name under its titular psychologist yet now read the words ‘Psycho Bob’. Susie went into the room, noticing the desk’s chair facing away from her)  
  
Susie:  
  
YOU there! Are you the High Boss?  
  
(The chair turned around, revealing a cloaked monk which rose and walked to the other side of the desk)  
  
Bob:  
  
_Ainsi moi, tu di?_ In English, me, the Boss you say.  
  
Susie:  
  
Eh?  
  
Bob:  
  
I mean **The** Boss, the leader, the mere don, Master, Head Honcho, Big Cheese, Great Dictator, Grand Poobah, The Shogun during the more erroneous period? How fresh and hip even for a modern compliment beyond even the most liberal knowledge our conservative minds have tried to reduce, and I tip my nonexistent hat towards you for leaving me flattered like this.  
  
(The monk removes its robe to reveal a squirrel dressed as Toad from the Mario games)  
  
Bob:  
  
But it should go without saying given the corniest parody in recent memory: our High Boss is in another castle!  
  
(Susie found this ‘tribute’ to be frustrating enough on its own and quickly pulled a gun out of her pocket to shoot Bob twice. The two bullets stopped in midair and floated right into both of Bob’s paws)  
  
Bob:  
  
Didn’t your parents teach you not to count on your bullets before they hit?  
  
Susie:  
  
I can see the psycho in you now.  
  
Bob:  
  
Awww fuck that label on the door, telekinetic is more akin to my profession, even if that’s not my only talent as you can SEE!  
  
(Bob made a crane pose with those same bullets he morphed into spheres)  
  
Susie:  
  
You want to dance then. My money is on The Black Swan taking on **any** genus of crane, squirrel boy!  
  
Bob:  
  
Sure, cause we all know where those samurai chipmunks learned how to fight: TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOL!!  
  
(Bob backflips towards Susie’s direction, aiming for the back of her noggin. Susie grabs hold of Bob’s foot a nanosecond in advance, then the other one before it tries to hit her and attempts to smash Bob into the ground. Bob avoids this by clapping the ground and fiercely shaking off Susie’s grip by throwing her towards the table hard enough to chop it down)  
  
Bob:  
  
Quit stalling like a first grader, it doesn’t even take my powers at full focus to see your mastery as a black belt in more than the mere basics!  
  
Susie:  
  
Basics?  
  
(Bob slices the air that made up an inch away from where Susie stood before she dodges it and claps half of his location, forcing him to duck and roundhouse kick a fraction of her chest. She wedged her left hand at the critical second to prevent him as Bob dodged an uppercut in order to land his paw on her shoulder only for her to scrub him off with a midair cartwheel)  
  
Susie:  
  
I’m thinking Judo and Aikido are easy to learn even FOR A PSYCHO!  
  
Bob:  
  
That’s psychic! AND I SAID I PREFER **TELEKINETIC!**  
  
(Bob jumps high and pulls a summersault to aim his elbows onto Susie’s neck. Susie rolls an inch away from Bob’s blow. Bob then tries to chop into Susie’s direction before she blocks it. Bob then kicks her face on the left cheek, distracting her enough to knock her balance down. Susie didn’t continue but rather allowed Bob to take the torch once her eyes widened for an unforeseen reason)  
  
Bob:  
  
You just had to turn me into a one-hit wonder.  
  
(Bob stood over Susie’s stomach)  
  
Bob:  
  
Maybe I am as ‘Psycho’ as they mislabel me if it really means ‘awesome’ in Nintendo’s dialect.  
  
(Bob took out a katana as he walked close enough to aim over Susie’s neck)  
  
Bob:  
  
Last minute requests before I keep the opposable thumbs The High Boss promised I could souvenir off of your hacked off hands?  
  
Susie:  
  
Huh, and I figured men were known for tits and ass envy given the gender they’re cursed with, but different strokes for different species. As for last requests: how’s a staring contest fit in your oh so limited schedule?  
  
Bob:  
  
Vice versa on that schedule aside, I mean this is the most rhetorical way possible, but if I don’t, does it really make a difference if you win?  
  
Susie:  
  
Who’s the one with the sword here?  
  
Bob:  
  
Damn right! So if you blink, you die!  
  
Susie:  
  
Whatever you say, Dr. Who.  
  
Bob:  
  
And it begins…NOW!  
  
(Susie stared at bob for less thatn half a minute, with her eyes movie around yet never blinking. At some point, tears began to form, in where she did something that actually shocked Bob in her circumstance: smile. A tear fell before she looked at Bob defiantly and winked. After that she sighed in relief before closing the other eye completely. Bob sneered as he lifted the katana)  
  
Bob:  
  
Say hi to high heaven for the High Boss, Sue!  
  
Susie:  
  
I have a better idea:  
  
(Suddenly, a bazooka held by Ignatz, launched itself towards Bob a millimetre away from him piercing Susie, sending the squirrel flying up into the sky)  
  
Susie:  
  
YOU try saying that at SIX TIMES THE SPEED YOURSELF!  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Right on queue then.  
  
Susie:  
  
Spot on! Though I don’t get why his telekinesis didn’t see you coming  
  
Ignatz:  
  
A giant octopus can grab so much before even 8 limbs is too little, I guess.  
  
Susie:  
  
Good to see I’ll always be an inch away from the reaper rather than ‘dancing’ with him by now.  
  
(Susie walked towards the broken office desk and noticed a remote that read ‘your time had come’ on that same button)  
  
<FLASHBACK> _  
  
Jeremy:_

 _I can only hope not. Then of course he also said ‘My time will come, they’ll see’ as if…he **is** plotting revenge, I’m not too sure myself.  
  
_ <FLASHBACK OVER>   
  
(Susie removes her earpiece upon realizing what kind of power she might be dealing with)  
  
Susie:  
  
Ah well, I would’ve told Calvin my identity instead rather than this. Guess we’ll have to trade, eh Ignatz?  
  
(As Susie pressed the button, Ignatz gasped a second after she said that)

<FLASHBACK>  
  
_Rat:  
  
How pathetic, I would have asked for my true identity.  
  
_<FLASHBACK OVER>  
  
Susie:  
  
Ignatz? Are you all right, dude?  
  
(Ignatz could have told her what was morbidly on his mind before the broken furniture folded itself up to take the form of a small podium with an IFruit on it)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Yeah, I’m fine…I just don’t think I heard an explosion after Bob flew away. But let’s get this over with first, shall we?  
  
Susie:  
  
…Yeah, let’s do that.  
  
(The computer began typing out words manually)  
  
IFruit:  
  
[WARE WA TADAIMA. CONTROL HAS ADAPTED NEW OWNERSHIP. TYPE NAME]

(Susie looked at Ignatz, then back at the computer, perplexed as to how she would reply despite it being too easy. She instead went for the standard method)  
  
Susie:  
  
Uhhh….Sue! What or who is this?  
  
(The computer’s words then disappeared before a new set began appearing)  
  
IFruit:  
  
[THIS IS THE BILK DIVISION’S MASTER CONTROL DATABASE. AFTER HAVING ENDURED A JOURNEY’S WORTH, BARELY MAKING IT OUT ALIVE WITH YOUR PRINCIPLES INTACT AND DEFEATING A SUFFICIENT INTEGER OF SUBORDINATES WHICH HAVE GUARDED THEMSELVES AS BOSSES, YOU ARE NOW ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THE FORMER HIGH BOSS’S PLACE AND INHERIT MASTER HIMONETA BILK’S LEGACY TO YOUR RULESHIP’S WILLING]  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh thank you, Mister Ifruit, but I’m only here to collect the High Boss’s weakness as I was lead to believe resided here.  
  
IFruit:  
  
[PERFECT, WE WILL BEGIN BY ERASING THE FORMER HIGH BOSS’S NAME OUT OF THE LIST AND ACQUAINT YOURSELF WITH JAPAN’S CLANDESTINE SUBSERVIENT LEADERS SO AS TO RETAIN…WHAT?]  
  
Susie:  
  
Instead, erase all that other noise and give me the High Boss’s weakness if you even have it.  
  
IFruit:  
  
[…….Umm….erRrG! ERROR! ERROR! 505 AND INTERNAL SERVICE! OR DOES NOT BLOODY COMPUTE, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DISARM THE BOSS’S HORSE WHEN YOU CAN JUST DISARM HIS WHOLE CAVALRY AND EVEN CALL IT YOUR OWN?!]  
  
(Susie was now unimpressed with what was supposed to be an AI riddled computer as of that instant)  
  
Susie:  
  
Do you speak English and not whatever object-oriented programming this is? Because I don’t think you understand why I’m here!  
  
IFruit:  
  
[SO NOW I’M C3PO TO YOU THEN. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS TAKE YOUR PLACE AS THE HIGHEST BOSS OF HOWEVER LITTLE YOU CONSIDER THIS DIVISION AND TAKE IT FROM THERE! CHOOSING ITS WEAKNESS IS THE ADVANCED EQUIVALENT OF RUBBING IT IN ITS FACE BEFORE TAKING IT DOWN, WHICH IS WHY THE QUARKYONIC EXPLOSIVE WAS MADE IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND HASN’T HISTORY REPEATED ITSELF ENOUGH?]  
  
Susie:  
  
Is that what you think I’m doing? I only want the Boss himself, from what a little mousy told me concerning two kids named Jason and Morton, to shut the Bilk Division down.   
  
IFruit:  
  
[What you want is revenge, which leads to nothing more than more connections to that same cycle of vengeance if you breathe enough to witness it go on.]   
  
Susie:  
  
Well forgive me, Mr. Ifruity, but if Japan wanted peace it wouldn’t have put all its effort into creating a cult based on video games to test our willpower. It’s bad enough people have made violent religions out of books, or that a movie like ‘The Birth of a nation’ had to be remade an entire century later to remind us how annoyingly imperfect we are. There is no way I’m about to believe that I’m stopping video games from going to those extremes.  
  
IFruit:  
  
[…K…as your generation so cleverly puts it]  
  
(The computer then reveals a screen box with one red button and one blue button)  
  
IFruit:  
  
[Click the blue button to proceed an amnesty and potential ceasefire of this paranoia based devastation by rightfully taking the crown as queen of video games. Click the red button to acquire a key before you for the High Boss’s one true weakness to be at your disposal.

Goodbye, Ms. Derkins]  
  
(The Ifruit shut down once Susie clicked the red button as 2 podiums with different items emerged: one with a key and another with a small treasure chest)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Are you sure you know this is right, Sue?  
  
(Susie opened the chest to reveal a cake with the words ‘the cake is a ‘In red with a label that also read ‘taste the frosting’. She also put her earpiece back on now that the doubtful coast was clear)  
  
Susie:  
  
No…but was Hiroshima or Nagasaki any different?  
  
_________________________________  



	13. Chapter 12: Frank and Harmonica Reborn

Chapter 12: Frank and Harmonica Reborn  
  
(Charlie Brown enjoyed the nighttime darkness of his front porch. He smiled once he saw a hooded figure, with a Kirby mask, walk towards him.)  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
Surprised to see me?  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
As Neo put it: I knew you’d come.  
  
(The hooded member chuckled a bit before telling him a story)  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
*SIGH*…Morton once told me that video games could never replicate life. Now I understand why…wouldn’t have bothered him, though, knowing you were still making it somewhere.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
So you found out why rodents are a gem amongst children.  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
It’s so absurd and unfair: we’re rodents ourselves.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
In the eyes of all parents. No matter how much they care, keep us alive, or even legitimately love us to raise us well enough, adults will always treat us like the vermin they were treated as once. Or to put it leniently, like the pets we are.  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
The future doesn’t matter to us anymore. Not the games, not the knowledge, Not the wisdom nurtured in our hearts nor even the enlightened feelings of living in the moment if tomorrow we will all be given ten times the taste of our own medicine.  
  
(Charlie Brown chuckled along a bit)  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
I came here to see you, because now…now I know you’ll tell me what I’m looking for.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
More of that rectifiable vengeance?  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
Justice.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
Believe me, in a world where the strong are born from the same ashes they were weakened by, there is no such thing as real justice. Your crush is gone, you used your best friend’s memory to find me, and you’ve taken down any former member like him, Morton, and now me under the Boss’s command.  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
My best friend betrayed me. I’ve entered desperation unknown.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
As for any other former member, the current High Boss will meet up with them in a few hours to make sure they rest in the most comfortable yet morbid of all beds in this rare case.  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
What, you mean a deathbed or something?  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
I’d go for more around…a water bed.  
  
(The member takes a few seconds to fit the pieces together before understanding Charlie Brown’s implication)  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
Then with that, I’ll be going now…I’ll come back when it’s all over.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
Those were Aerith’s last words in Final Fantasy 7.  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
Heh, good call. You must have been a shit hell of a Boss before that tyrant ‘killed you off’’.  
  
Charlie Brown:  
  
Congenital growth hormones helped me from looking like the older me if he still lived.  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
A rare case indeed.  
  
(The member turns around before leaving into the night)  
  
Kirby mask:  
  
See you on the other side, Charlie Brown.  
  
_________________________________   



	14. Chapter 13: Guilty All the Same

Chapter 13: Guilty All the Same  
  
_‘You’re guilty all the same, too sick to be ashamed, you want to point your finger, but there’s no one else to blame’_ –Chester Bennington  
  
(The Boss situated itself in an empty office before a member with a Crash Bandicoot mask intruded in its darkness)  
  
Crash mask:  
  
High Boss!  
  
(The Boss stood up with an angry aura)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Yes?  
  
Crash Mask:  
  
Our enemy has hold of your weakness, what is the next move?  
  
(The High Boss lied motionless for a scary four seconds before approaching the member. It then bumped out of its way and out of the room)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Noted, follow me and call upon the order of three of the highest members you can find.  
  
Crash Mask:  
  
Affirmative, High Boss, I’m also accompanying the use of one-shot Tasers at your disposal.  
  
(The Boss stopped on its way out of the hideout)  
  
High Boss:  
  
It’s not every day you see one chase the hare for another to catch it, but keep them anyway. I’ve got a hidden armament of my own.  
_________________________________  
  
(Susie and Ignatz made it back to the apartment, where Calvin and Jeremy awaited)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Is that really it?  
  
Susie:  
  
Proof being in the pastry.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
In what again?  
  
Susie:  
  
Watch, learn, and get a load.  
  
(Susie revealed to Calvin inside the box what was indeed delivered the dated choice of words in its mystery: ‘the cake is a *blank*”)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Well atta girl, Sue, though my taste of nuance wouldn’t have been **this** theatrical.  
  
Susie:  
  
Thanks for reminding me! Should we follow the label and eat a piece?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Now hold on a second! What if that’s exactly what-  
  
Susie:  
  
Dude, Jere bear, if you can’t come to our senses, let Ignatz’s buddy cop trust download into that dated hard drive of yours. It’s less gigabytes than what the IFruit offered!  
  
Calvin:   
  
She has a point, Jeremy. How else are we supposed to take a risk if the cake isn’t giving us any other option?  
  
Jeremy:   
  
*SIGH* Fine then, but in case it’s poisoned, tell my landlord-  
  
(Jeremy tasted a good scoop of frosting only to get the tinge of soap and bitter lemons)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
OH PLEAH! BLEAHHH! I swear I’m going to puke! Poison probably has flavour compared to this!  
  
(Susie looks at an empty spot on the cake, specifically where Jeremy wiped off to taste: red lines, almost resembling an ‘L’)  
  
Calvin:   
  
That’s it! The cake isn’t real! It’s phony, a lie, decoy based material!  
  
Susie:  
  
Huh…so it is.  
  
(Calvin detained from explaining and instead wiped off the frosting to reveal ‘lie’ as the hidden word. They were all even more surprised once Calvin applied extra pressure to the word: the cake opened up like a slow jack-in-the-box. The contents inside were a metallic envelope)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Kevlar, eh?  
  
Susie:  
  
What? The stuff they make bulletproof vests with?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I’d expect nothing less from the boss, to be honest.  
  
Susie:  
  
Well when anyone’s down, I’m ready to open it.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Now hold on, Sue, just one more question: you said ‘The computer offered’ didn’t you?  
  
Susie:  
  
Uh…why? Are you planning on taking its side too?  
  
Calvin:  
  


What do you mean?  
  
Susie:  
  
Just get to the point on ‘what about the computer offering’ me squat.  
  
Calvin:  
  
It…just interests me. I mean that wasn’t an obstacle for you, was it?  
  
Susie:  
  
Not really, at least if you want to hear the condensed version.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Okay, but why would I **want** to take the computer’s side, exactly?  
  
Susie:  
  
*SIGH*…Because it offered me the choice between some control of the sect and the Boss’s weakness, which was just surreal as fuck.  
  
(Calvin opens his eyes wide in shock)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Uh…that’s not even the least bit surreal Sue, why didn’t you-  
  
Susie:  
  
Does it look like anyone else cares, Calvin? Let’s just open our presents now already.  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I concur, Calvin, unless **you** want to know what expired soap tastes like.  
  
(Jeremy grabbed a chunk of the cake, leaving Calvin to cross his arms and motion his hand in allowing them to proceed)

  
Jeremy:   
  
Let it literally rip, Sue!  
  
(Susie opened the Kevlar envelope with a Kevlar proof knife from her knapsack)  
  
Susie:  
  
Well I’ll be the damned head of Sony.  
  
(It was a birthday card, written in Sindarin Elvish, that read ‘This may be a joystick’ on the front side, with a person P-laying an Xbox 1.5 with a controller, while the other side had that same person surprised as a girl hugged him while saying ‘but you’re a joy sticking with’, as well as a note that read ‘don’t forget, August 13’)  
  
Susie:  
  
Aaaand THIS looks important!  
  
(This was a festive occasion for everyone, except Calvin, despite Susie’s point of view)  
  
Susie:  
  
Gentle dudes, we did it, we did it, we did it, yeah! Nous faisons faire.  
  
(Susie directs her sarcastic yet jolly Dora impression at Jeremy, Ignatz, and Calvin)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Uh…yeah, we did it.  
  
Susie:  
  
Correct! We did the impossible and overthrew the Division, and possibly the end of this great country. All that’s really left to do now is get the High Boss’s conditional surrender, okay Calvin?  
  
(Calvin retained his serious glare, as though holding a grudge on her that she only assumed didn’t exist. Susie nevertheless humoured him despite his spirit)  
  
Susie:  
  
Yo! Earth to Calvin! Calvin to Susie! We fucking won! They lost! For real! Why not join us? There’s no reason-  
  
(She then saw deeper into Calvin’s growing anger, which flat out pushed her buttons at that instant)  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh grow a bloody set, Calvin! They’re thee dobadders, not us! Are we really stooping to their level regardless of my subordination?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Ït doesn’t matter, Sue, blackmail is blackmail compared to what we could’ve done.  
  
(Now Susie was contaminated by Calvin’s attitude, albeit with a more shocked outlook)  
  
Susie:  
  
Compared to- OH, Give it a goddamn rest for once, Cal! I already-  
  
(Calvin swiped the card away and out of nowhere, as though to detract Susie’s rage)  
  
Susie:  
  
Calvin Wintek, put that back in my hand this second, mister!  
  
Calvin:  
  
First tell me more about this IFruit control  
  
(Susie lost her cool yet agreed for anyone else’s sake)  
  
Susie:  
  
Fine, what I recall is it offering me some…of the High Boss’s omnipotence in exchange for the weakness.  
  
Calvin:  
  
‘Omnipotence’  
  
Susie:  
  
Yeah, like a new program, spyware, or an advance payment from a Namibian prince for once if it meant keeping his word for all I cared!  
  
(Calvin knew she was hiding what he really wanted to hear the less eye contact she made)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Did it offer you the throne?  
  
(Susie was beginning to run out of good wit to keep Calvin from exploding)  
  
Susie:  
  
IT…offered me these other gifts to tempt me, so who really-  
  
Calvin:  
  
IT’S A YES OR NO QUESTION, SUE!! DID IT OR DID IT NOT OFFER YOU THE THRONE?!  
  
(Susie recoiled before answering)  
  
Susie:  
  
ALL RIGHT, FINE, PARTY POOPER! YES, OF COURSE IT OFFERED ME ONCE AGAIN AND HOPEFULLY FOR THE FINAL TIME, A MONARCHY FOR THE NEW AGE ENGLISH SPEAKING EMPIRE VIA JAPANESE FUCKING BASED GLOBALIZATION!!!! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED TO KNOW!?  
  
(Calvin remained horrified. Seconds later, he began walking in small yet continuous circles)  
  
Calvin:  
  
I don’t…this is impossible…Am I really?...I don’t believe it…  
  
(Despite her rage finally relieving herself, Susie tried her best to comfort Calvin)  
  
Susie:  
  
Calvin, think about it! Do you want me to take leadership of a potential trigger between us and mass annihilation? The same Division that screwed us all hard without even the decency to apply lube?!  
  
Calvin:  
  
Oh give me a…Sue, my good friend, we could’ve just gone the full monty and terminated that reign. That means no need for the sect, for this silly stupid weakness, all by accepting the power and having what it takes to snap the elder wand in half!  
  
(They were calm yet agitated on the inside, like a married couple going through their Tasmanian devil phase)  
  
Susie:  
  
And you’re proof positive that plan would have been equally as perfect as the one I had at this very moment?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Sue, the reason this division started was out of taunting our enemies BEFORE WE THOUGHT WE DEFEATED THEM! DON’T YOU GET IT ALREADY?!  
  
Susie:  
  
Do you? We’re not living in the 20th century anymore, so who was I to listen to a fucking IFruit for fuck’s sakes?!  
  
Calvin:  
  
What else did we have to lose?  
  
Susie:  
  
We as in me being part? After the innocent children I helped wipe out with this…this sect? Do you think I want to go back and let you survive with **two** robotic arms?!  
  
Calvin:  
  
Again: You’re suggesting we end it with a vengeance, the same way it began.  
  
Susie:  
  
Not unless you’re letting me take credit for an idea that WASN’T EVEN MINE!  
  
(Susie was beginning to endure a relapse of the subordinate side that hated this Calvin even before she knew him well enough)  
  
<FLASHBACK>  
  
_Calvin:  
__…TLDR Yes, martyrdom’s the name of the game that topples over your recidivism of the English Empire’s monsters by bringing out the undisputedly yet inevitably dark side of pluralism in even the most recreational, or FUN, video games couldn’t successfully hide thanks to human nature!!!_  
  
<FLASHBACK OVER>  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Okay, break it up time begins now! Don’t forget we also take credit for this event.  
  
(Susie looks at Calvin for a few seconds just as angrily before it hits her)  
  
Susie:  
  
No worries, Jeremy…I get it now.  
  
(She then looked at Calvin’s angrily tired eyesight)  
  
Susie:  
  
You’re jealous, aren’t you, Calvin?  
  
(Calvin’s face remained angry if a hint of confused afterwards)  
  
Calvin:  
  
What gave you that conclusion?  
  
Susie:  
  
Jeremy said so: you’re an envious guy, Calvin, thinking you can succeed by yourself, and now my victory is by a magical somehow proving you wrong!  
  
(Calvin now glanced at everyone except Ignatz angrily)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Ah…he told you **that** far…but let me assure you I’d be arguing about  why I could’ve been the one using you guys to HACK my way into Japan for all I cared to try and use their quarkyonic missile against them. But I didn’t, and you know why?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
You’re want me to tell them for you according to your mind?  
  
Calvin:  
  
*SIGH* No Ignatz, not if ‘teamwork’, or at least ‘amnesty’ is harder said than thought!  
  
Susie:  
  
Then why not tell us all about this master control computer from the very get go if you really weren’t jealous enough to keep it to yourself, Mr. Assagne?  
  
(Calvin was awestruck, leaving Susie with the upper hand now)  
  
Susie:  
  
Would it also hurt if I told you there was a button that read ‘your time has come’?  
  
(Calvin remained silent as Susie was regaining her triumphant posture, albeit from a more morbid cause)  
  
Susie:  
  
_YA PARI SOKA!  
__やっぱり_ そうか _  
_  You guys never change! One moment you try to be rugged men just to throw it away and devolve back into teeny tiny-  
  
(Calvin glared at Jeremy at his angriest)  
  
Calvin:  
  
We **shook** on it!  
  
(Calvin entered the kitchen for a couple of seconds to take out a set of items before leaving the apartment altogether)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Hold the front door, dude! Where are you thinking of going at this time of night?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Relax, Jeremy, I already did time in my own Juvy a while back.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
You’re taking the card?  
  
Calvin:  
  
And a gun, in case anyone OBVIOUS is looking for me.  
  
(Susie followed Calvin after nearly a block away from the apartment)  
  
Susie:  
  
FTR, This was my journey that YOU SUPPORTED!! WE ALL HAVE A SAY IN THIS NOW NO MATTER WHAT!!  
  
Calvin:  
  
I know…I’m too sick to be ashamed, but just because payback wasn’t the right option didn’t mean there wasn’t any other! I just wanted to move on once we were finished.  
  
Susie:  
  
So why are you running from it, Calvin? Why if you know facing it head on is the real way to solve it, and by default, eliminate it?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Because only **you** would know! Having told this to other members without the futile touch of sincerity for once!  
  
(Calvin continued walking, in where Susie couldn’t keep her guard on any more)  
  
Susie:  
  
You know what **you** are, Calvin?!  
  
(Calvin stopped, almost attentive of her words)  
  
Susie:  
  
Bloody cynical, that’s what.  
  
(Calvin turned around; shocking Susie with a resolve she hadn’t felt from him in a long time)  
  
Susie:  
  
I mean…what happened..to…you…you know?...Uh…cause…I…  
  
Calvin:  
  
A very good question, SUE! WHAT **DID** HAPPEN TO ME, HUH?!?!  
  
(Susie remained motionless and quiet, afraid even)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Let me tell you what I know: I’ve had it up to fucking Chimborazo with this act of yours! First you try to accuse me of being so secretive just to prove you yourself seem to know more about me than I do apparently!  
  
(Susie kept her silence, almost wanting to look away)  
  
Calvin:  
  
If you’re incapable of telling me the obvious, at least explain to me how in spite of all that ‘head strong’ BS, I was still the only exception in that filthy fucking dungeon of innocent hands?  
  
(Susie looked back at him, yet saw he was the one who was stronger than her back when they almost shared a kiss)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Of course you would know **everything** about me, wouldn’t you, ‘Sue’?  
  
(Calvin looked at her now pale resolve, inept to reply. He then turned around after a good few seconds and shook his head)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Me neither.  
  
(Calvin almost walked away before stopping enough of a distance for Susie to listen to him)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Only one of us chose to move on with their lives, Sue, and right now…  
  
(Calvin balls his fists then calms them again before walking away as he closed his eyes to finish his statement)  
  
Calvin:  
  
It’s hard to tell whom that is.  
  
(Calvin kept walking until the dusk enveloped him completely, Leaving Susie in the dark despite being shined by one of the dozen lampposts)  



	15. Chapter 14: The Negative One

Chapter 14: The Negative One  
  
‘ _Your divisions are going to get you, because you won’t disappoint each other’_  
\- Corey Taylor  
  
(Calvin sat on the pier of ‘Magic Lake’, contemplating his reflection. He also contemplated the day Sue saved his life)  
  
<FLASHBACK>  
  
  
_(Calvin and Susie were still oblivious to each other inside the dungeon, as their masks and ranks implied)_  
  
_Calvin(still wearing the scary Tomba mask):  
  
Wait…aren’t you going to kill me?  
  
Susie(still wearing the scary Sweet-tooth mask):  
  
What’s your name?  
  
Calvin:  
  
Like I said, your job isn’t to socialize-  
  
(Susie removes one hand from the two-holed guillotine and places the bracelet clouted one further in)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Hey! Why are you just-  
  
SLASH!!!!!  
  
(The guillotine came down hard and hacked off Calvin’s entire right arm)  
  
Calvin:  
  
AAAAAUGH! MY GODFUCKING DAMNNNN! OH GOD ! AAAH!  
  
Susie:  
  
Tell me your name or you’ll bleed out despite no longer being persecuted by us.  
  
Calvin:  
  
Calv---RRRRAH! CALVIN WINTEK! WHAT DO YOU FUCKING WANT! RRRH!  
  
(Susie then took off her robe and covered Calvin’s wound)  
  
Susie:  
  
Follow me.  
  
(Calvin ran in unimaginable pain and dizziness as Susie moved to a second escape. She opened the door and gave Calvin a set of directions with Jeremy’s names on them)  
  
Calvin:  
  
NNNG! The fuck-the fuck is Jere-  
  
Susie:  
  
Follow these directions and you’ll be okay, so hurry before you do the Boss’s job minus the extra trophy!  
  
(Calvin ran off as far as he could, despite Susie’s glance at his wobbly posture that was making her believe otherwise)  
  
_<FLASHBACK OVER>  
  
(Calvin looked at his robotic arm and punched the wooden pier with it, breaking them due to added age and almost forcing him to fall on his grip)  
  
Calvin: _  
  
_ Ah nuts and bolts to this…that’s how Jeremy made it waterproof.  
  
(Calvin let go and landed with a splash. He floated for a while before slowly beginning to sink)  
  
Calvin: _  
_  
Too bad **it** doesn’t know how to swim either.  
  
(Calvin closed his eyes and allowed himself to drown, wondering if his instincts would truly let him. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself sitting inside a car, with him again amidst a white abyss: Hobbes.)  
  
Hobbes:  
  
You make me sad, Calvin.  
  
Calvin: _  
  
_ Hobbes.  
  
Hobbes:  
  
I know it…you finally love…someone, and I’m sorry for your parents’ expense…for **my** expense.  
  
Calvin: __  
  
You think you know how it feels.  
  
Hobbes:  
  
Even a stuffed animal has enough imagination to stem the honesty, fairness, and justice a child I always knew put into him…before he ditched me for good.  
  
(Calvin rolled his eyes)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Hobbes, it was thanks to that imagination that I got this far.

 

(Hobbes remained with that faint gleam)  
  
Calvin:  
  
I got this far…by running away from it. Running away from reality, not facing it!  
  
Hobbes:  
  
You once admitted, much like Einstein, that the curb couldn’t keep up with your intellect, and you weren’t wrong: Einstein too admitted imagination was more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, Imagination encircles the world.  
  
(Calvin looks away, only to notice his right hand was whole again, before gripping it and looking back at Hobbes)  
  
Calvin:  
  
It’s thanks to that very imagination that one of Einstein’s less innocent creations has evolved out of the former millennium and threatens vengeance on the real world. Not the world you want.  
  
(Calvin stands up)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Not the world I once wanted.  
  
(Hobbes glares at Calvin for a while, then extends his paw as a final option)  
  
Hobbes:  
  
Take my hand, Calvin…we still can-  
  
Calvin:  
  
No, Hobbes. I am Calvin Wintek...I am member A75 NO MORE!  
  
(At that moment, Hobbes’ face morphs into a fish, which Calvin tried to sway away as he made his way up and back on dry land. Once there, he dried himself behind a set of bushes, before spotting six figures approach the pier.  
  
_________________________________  
  
(Susie remained transfixed in that same lamppost lighted area until Jeremy came looking for her)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Sue! Whatever happened?  
  
Susie:  
  
Well for starters Calvin’s hardly coming back, so you can drop the Sue pretext.  
  
(Jeremy noticed Susie was flustered by this, forcing him to lay a hand on her shoulder)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Susie, I wish there was a way of escaping this more than anyone in our team, but unlike Calvin, I think I’ve finally accepted my role in this.  
  
(Susie set his hand aside as she turned around)  
  
Susie:  
  
Jeremy, just because we each had our part to play didn’t mean it had to come to this…this contest!  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Didn’t it? You kept assuming Calvin wanted to tear down the sect without trying to walk in the HB’s shoes, but you heard him loud and clear: He only went for revenge because he thought the sect was too rough around the edges to let him, as well as too many other members, move on. What did you think he was going for?  
  
(Susie looked back at Jeremy, his confidence making her a little bit nervous for some unknown cause)  
  
Susie:  
  
I never wanted this for you. What am I supposed to do then?  


(Jeremy got too close to her face now, nearly half a decimetre away)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
That’s how you beat a boss: you play by its rules until it’s safe enough to throw them away.  
  
(It wasn’t until his droopy eyes that Jeremy began creeping Susie out)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
And let’s be real…you’re too young to die…by yourself.  
  
Susie:  
  
Jeremy…what…the hell…do you thi-  
  
(Then it just happened: Jeremy laid his lips on Susie. She struggled for two seconds before closing her eyes and letting it happen. About a minute and a half finished, before she recoiled in tears as her eyes opened wide)  
  
Susie:  
  
NO! STOP!!!  
  
(Jeremy looked at Susie with a mildly hopeless gaze)  
  
Susie:  
  
I won’t do this anymore! I CAN’T DO THIS TO CALVIN BECAUSE-  
  
(Susie buried her face underneath her hands before running back into the apartment)  
  
Susie:  
  
he loves me, and I…I love him too!  
\------------------------------------------


	16. Chapter 15: The High Boss Returns

Chapter 15: The High Boss Returns  
  
  
(Jeremy returned from the same Seven Eleven, with a bag of groceries as he tried to juggle what he was going to do next by talking to himself on the way to the apartment)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Let’s see, what should I watch tonight? Blood: The Last Vampire, or Blood **C** : The Last **Dark**? I mean everyone loves the classics, but I already vomited through Blood C’s perquisites even if I didn’t watch the original anime series, so it’s only fair to stay up to date with any new-  
  
(Jeremy then noticed a familiar object twenty metres away from him)   
  
Jeremy:  
  
Hold on a minute!  
  
(Jeremy approached it, looked down, and nearly touched the watch-like apparatus)   
  
Jeremy:  
  
I have Calvin’s tracking device, where’s-  
  
(Jeremy felt the barrel of a gun touch the back of his head)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Calvin?  
  
_________________________________  
  
(Ignatz witnessed as Susie silently wept her way into the door)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
I take it you and Calvin are finished.  
  
(Susie looked down at Ignatz once she saw where he was)  
  
Susie:  
  
Why not do something less girly and picture me nude or something, mousefreak?  
  
(Ignatz stood quietly before returning a rabid scowl at Susie. She rolled her eyes once he looked away)  
  
Susie:  
  
Kidding, Iggy! I’m sorry, but you would know how long back me and Calvin go, so it was only inevitable for us to honour the more committed portion of our marriage, sadly.

 

Ignatz:  
  
*SIGH* Fine, but I’m still siding with Jeremy on this one.  
  
Susie:  
  
Siding?  
  
(Susie and Ignatz sat together to allow a tinge of sympathy to intervene)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
The truth is…I know Bob survived regardless of his failure, but what I was really worried about was hos similar you became to Rat when your main concern became your…identity.  
  
(Susie thought about her words, trying to associate them with their current condition)  
  
Susie:  
  
Heh, I guess we all reap the cake that we sow, want to have, and eat at the same time. Otherwise I wouldn’t have gone from being a mere pet to a full-fledged subordinate in less time that it took Calvin to reach High Member status.  
  
(Ignatz felt puzzled for a moment)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Pet?  
  
_______________________________  
  
(A hooded member, wearing a shadow Mario mask, held Jeremy at gunpoint)  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
Look up and you’re hitting the ground.  
  
(Jeremy smiled a little)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I should have guessed. It’s always like a festival for the Gestapo at night for scum like you, isn’t it?  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
Here’s how we’ll play it out: you’re going to lead the way *snickers* towards the rest of the crew *giggles* and-  
  
Jeremy:  
  
No, no, no,no,no,no…I think nothing of that. You and I…we both know, especially from your premature laughter, the two of us aren’t negotiating anything.  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
Ah, you caught my laughter as fucking with you, if only your IQ wasn’t as equally as useless.  
  
(The member cocked the weapon)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Wait! Okay, fine by me, but don’t harm Susie!  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
The former subordinate? Mellow down, the boss is planning a special liquidating party for her, why lie?  
  
(Jeremy’s eyes tightened closed)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
じゃ _ぱり_ ね  
_Ya pari neh_.  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
Before you go, drink the Arizona in your bag.  
  
(Jeremy looks at the member confusingly, then back at the grocery bag, before taking the Arizona out as instructed)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
You mean before I die.  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
The bigger Jman himself knew better than to go out thirsty.  
  
(Jeremy thought about it and ingested the green tea completely)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
I must say…  
  
(Jeremy smiled)  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Damn good stuff…it beats the hell out of beer and antifreeze.  
  
(The member put its other hand inside its pocket before taking a hidden object out with its reply)  
  
Shadow Mario mask:  
  
Indeed.  
  
SLASH!!!  
  
_________________________________  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Why do you see yourselves as pets?  
  
Susie:  
  
Have you ever heard this urban fable about a boy and a squirrel?  
  
Ignatz:  
  
The one where he grabs a hamburger because he didn’t want to be treated like a pigeon?  
  
Susie:  
  
YES! And that’s my point! The squirrel didn’t want the boy’s pity…even if it got mine, heh.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Well…that’s just one pity we could really get from The Bilk Division.  
  
Susie:  
  
Yeah…too bad he thought he was so special, because you too held credibility in his department.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
…You mean in realizing your chip wasn’t good enough?  
  
(Ignatz got really close to Susie)  
  
Susie:  
  
‘Our chip’? Ignatz, you’re not trying to imply you’d-  
  
(Before Susie could continue, something happened for the first time that truly amazed her: Ignatz’s mouth moved to his words)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Forgive me, Susie, they had my family.  
  
(Susie glanced back at Ignatz in bewilderment)  
  
Susie:  
  
What happened to your family?  
  
(Susie saw the door banged open with Jeremy standing motionless. He held a sign on him that read ‘The Boss’ Dry Cleaned’)  
  
Susie:  
  
Jeremy? Are you…   
  
(To her horror, Jeremy’s mouth became a waterfall of blood before he fell headfirst, a knife protruding in the back of his neck.)  
  
Susie:  
  
JEREMY! OH NO!  
  
(Before she could tend to him, Susie could no longer move any part of her body. She stood motionless as Ignatz walked in front of her)  
  
Ignatz:  
  
He’d still be with us if he was wrong, Sue. You should’ve just listened to him and ran away instead of trying to unconsciously find your way back into this same knife that left you for dead since that first time  
  
(Four hooded figures wearing ambiguous video game character masks entered the hallway of the apartment, followed by the High Boss, who now wore a Sauron mask)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Hold on until my word is given.  
  
The four members simultaneously:  
  
Affirmative, High Boss.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
All right Boss, a deal is what it is…I just…want to see my wife and children again…please?  
  
(The High Boss crouched down to Ignatz’s level before replying)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Okeydokey, but thanks for stealing the spotlight by making it sound more horrifying for even **my** standards.  
  
Ignatz:  
  
Horrifying?  
  
(Quicker than usual, The Boss took out a gun and shot Ignatz in his entirety, before Susie was tazed by all four members)  
  
Ignatz:  
A promise is a promise you kept in check.  
  
(The Boss then returned its gaze at the paralyzed Susie)  
  
High Boss:  
  
And despite all the infidelity, Ignatz knew how to play by the rules rather than rely on too many of our cheat-codes like you, Subby Sue.   
  
(Two members tied Susie up and carried her out before the other two began bathing most of the apartment with kerosene and gasoline)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Seeing as the last spot he telekinetically conveyed me was near Calvin, prepare to feel what it is to be a sore loser.  
  
(The members departed whilst the High Boss was last to walk away)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Next stop: Magic Lake.  
  
(The apartment exploded into flames once one member threw a chuck of burning paper into it)  
  
_________________________________  



	17. Chapter 16: Two can lose at that game, Part 1

Chapter 16: Two can lose at that game, Part 1  
  
(Calvin dried himself in the same bushes he hid behind upon looking at six figures approach the pier. He then saw Susie was one of them)  
  
Calvin:  
  
(*Whispers*) No…no, this isn’t happening.  
  
(He saw as they dragged her near the same broken edge, as though the Boss was ready to shoot her into the water)  
  
Calvin:  
  
(*Whispers*) Fuck! Oh Sue, what do I do?  
  
High Boss:  
  
♫ You wanted out but you can’t have it! ♫ Here we are, High members: Magic Lake!  
  
(The High Boss held Susie’s petrified chin up.)  
  
High Boss:  
  
While you, my dearest of subordinates, are finally by my side after so long.  
  
(The Boss let go and reached for its pocket)  
  
High Boss:   
  
And yet compared to you, this moment is not worth killing, so I guess the ol’ monologue hokum is justified in my case.  
  
(The Boss revealed a control with a keyboard and calculator set of buttons alike)  
  
High Boss:

  
The true nuance of these pagers is the way that they testify, like any other tech of our time, how outdated and obsolete the previous Macs in life are becoming.  
  
(The Boss made sure that the now conscious Susie saw as far as every side of each button)  
  
High Boss:  
  
The quietest of firearms are this millennium’s own hara-kiri now that I can not only go Cloud Atlas on any member’s skin, but their loved ones too! I mean just think about it: Our lives have become ten times as treasured from fearing long and skill worthy katanas…to an adult bibi gun!  
  
(Susie could nearly speak again, yet decided to let the High Boss continue as though its revenge really was that bad of an idea.)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Since you cared more about my weak points than the debt Japan has entrusted me with by regulating this bloody Division, I’ll just take that as your final request since your imminence will render them useless.  
  
(Susie spit, leaving only the members in shock since the Boss once knew Susie as more than just a friend)  
  
Susie:  
  
And you assume I want something useless.  
  
(The Boss clutched Susie’s neck in the blink of an eye, hoisting her to a height still greater than its own)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Never forget Ignatz was in on this from the moment you heard his thoughts rather than his honest lips: I know everything about your beloved boyfriend, how you let him off scot free, and believe you me: His cowardice provides a potential front row seat to your-  
  
(Susie only wriggled enough to get the Boss’s attention as her paralysis was only more than halfway gone)  
  
Susie:  
  
FUCK YOU! You’re the real coward if you think I…just…  
  
(Susie hesitated, letting a sole tear guide her words)  
  
Susie:  
  
Just get your stupid job done!  
  
(The Boss let go of Susie)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Oh no, tsk tsk tsk, don’t cry, Sue, IT’S A WASTE OF GOOD SUFFERING! You would know. And further so, your boyfriend wouldn’t want to face the uneasy decision of walking in our shoes once I take in effect this ‘stupid job’ that was once yours!  
  
Susie:  
  
THEN LEAVE HIM ALONE! OR AT LEAST OUT OF THIS!!!  
  
(The High Boss grasped Susie’s chin once more)  
  
High Boss:  
  
If only I could…because if only **you** had.  
  
(The High Boss let Susie drop, forcing her to hit the edge)  
  
High Boss:  
  
You recall the day we actually met, don’t you? The day I brought ‘Illuminados’ from the classic Resident Evil 4 into the mix before Asian religion made its way? Cause there was a quote from it which I actually like: “The American prevailing is a cliché that only happens in your Hollywood movies” And you’ve got me: I was indeed entertained by how you went to that hell and back they call TVTropes nowadays, as if a synonym  for cliché makes it any less lucrative. So to show you my equal appreciation, I will reveal to you, Calvin, and these four lovely members Osmond Saddlers real face, and by doing so, liberate you from your ideas of a world with ‘tropes’.  
  
(The High Boss began removing layers of masks, even fake tubing for an unforeseen cause)  
  
Susie:  
  
Maybe…*SOB*…maybe I’ve turned against myself because THAT’S CALVIN’S OPPOSED YET UPPER HAND: YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW HIM!!!  
  
(The Boss was at its penultimate layer once it spoke back)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Ah the wall of incompatibilities: force and conviction, vengeance and justice, and now, death and embarrassment,  right out of the black.  
  
(The Boss removed its final mask as its voice morphed to something younger, like Susie before she was even a teenager)  
  
 High Boss:  
  
Besides: IT’S NOT LIKE HE KNEW YOU EITHER!  
  
(The High Boss indeed divulged itself as a preteen girl, twelve going on thirteen maybe, brown eyes, brunette hair, and one irregularly large bang)  
  
High Boss:  
  
DID HE, SUSAN MONTGOMERY DERKINS?!?  
  
_________________________________  
  
(Susie gasped upon seeing her once High Boss, as well as an entire society’s, was not a boy as informed, but someone just like her except younger)  
  
Susie:  
  
You’ve…you’re for real.  
  
High Boss:  
  
Two identities for the stakes of one.  
  
(The girl directs her eyesight at Susie to showcase an inexplicably hypnotic shine)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Fun fact: let a mouse use its powers on you, without dying, and they become yours…Or is that still not as impressive as divulging your identity for your boyfriend to hear?  
  
(What Neither Susie nor The High Boss knew was that Calvin’s memory only responded to the name ‘Susie’ as his memory bank could only link that, along with any other event they shared as younger children)  
  
Susie:  
  
*SIGH*…This is my fucking nightmare.  
  
(The High Boss caressed Susie’s head, who tried biting back before the girl recoiled quickly and kicked Susie hard in the chest)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Now now, Susan, you think we all haven’t been there before. Except this is a video game cult, meaning you’re not the only one who wishes she was perfect without needing to be someone I wouldn’t know.  
  
(The High Boss directed her attention away from the writhing Susie to look at her members for support)  
  
High Boss:  
  
It’s all a decided cliché, this act, isn’t it? I’d say it’s already time to-  
  
Susie:  
  
Kill me finally? *COUGH* Because it’ll work with Denise and Steve out of the way? Why didn’t you just kill her yourself instead of sending me like some sort of sick and twisted trust thy neighbor?  
  
(The High Boss stood there indiscriminately for two seconds before snapping its fingers in conjecture)  
  
High Boss:  
  
That’s right…you still think I was aiming for **her** after your disappointment back with you and your now Fullmetal Calvinist!  
  
(The Boss moves to Susie’s side to disclose further)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Your boyfriend was right all along, by following the rules bestowed upon by the IFruity, you could’ve really overthrown me and saved this country any further wrath, the High Boss of this new drug! Instead of shit! Which is what you are! Let’s face it, It was you, Susan!  
  
(The Boss spits at Susie’s face, despite Susie now being fully mobile)  
  
High Boss:  
  
Hiring you was my real weakness  
  
(The High Boss once again moves towards the members to redirect orders. Then the Boss didn’t hear it coming: Susie’s growing laughter)  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh give me a break…I knew your real weakness before I even spoke to that dated computer.  
  
(The High Boss stands still. Knowing she wasn’t planning on turning around, Susie confesses)  
  
Susie:  
  
You have the hots for Calvin.  
  
(Despite feeling agitated, the High Boss still refuses to turn around)  
  
High Boss:  
  
I hardly see anything there is to like from that Super Saiyan Zero.  
  
(Calvin pulled a tude out of confusion: having been a fan of DBZ since their last two movies.)  
  
Susie:  
  
It only occurred to me once you thought I was his GF, you wanted me out of the picture. Isn’t that why you wanted him to replace you in the throne?  
  
(The High Boss turns around then)  
  
High Boss:   
  
THAT WAS OLD NEWS! GO ON! SPATTER ANY MORE GOSSIP IF YOUR DEATHWISH IS THAT DESPERATE!  
  
(The High Boss holds a gun at Susie’s head)  
  
Susie:  
  
That’s the main issue: What if he sees me get killed by you?  
  
High Boss:  
  
Shut…your…mouth.  
  
Susie:  
  
What will he think of you then.  
  
High Boss:  
  
SHUT IT!!  
  
(Susie waits for a few seconds, chuckles, then keeps going)  
  
Susie:  
  
First the blind girl, now me? I’d hate to see him for once pulling adjacent triggers to his butterfingers after what you did to him.  
   
High Boss:  
  
…What?...NO! HOW?!?  
  
(Despite her weakened state, Susie managed to get at The High Boss’s real soft spot)  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh right. Once pulling adjacent triggers? What I meant was… **pulling a Jason**.  
  
(The Boss stands back)  
  
Susie:  
  
…Wouldn’t he?...Eileen Jacobson?  
  
_________________________________  
Note: In an annoyingly perfect world, this would be a perfect tribute to movies with unexpected twists from the 90s.


	18. Chapter 17: Two can lose at that game, Part 2

Chapter 17: Two can lose at that game, Part 2  
  
(The High Boss, known as Eileen Jacobson, grabbed Susie by the neck once more)  
  
Eileen:  
  
How…could you have known?!  
  
Susie:  
  
Still haven’t conquered that stuck up board game, now have we? Double agency meant Ignatz was his own cheat code.  
  
(Right in front of Eileen’s vision, a flashback of the awkward moment between Jeremy and Susie that went on about an hour ago takes the stage)  
  
<FLASHBACK>  
  
_Jeremy:  
  
And let’s be real…you’re too young to die…by yourself.  
  
(Jeremy gets close to Susie)  
  
Susie:  
  
Jeremy…what…the hell…do you thi-  
  
(Then Jeremy just kissed Susie without warning)  
  
**Jeremy:**  
  
**HELLO?  
  
Susie:  
  
WHAT?!  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Can you hear me, Susie?  
  
Susie:  
  
JEREMY! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS AND WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO RAPE ME RIGHT NOW?!  
  
Jeremy:**  
  
**Mellow down, Sue, this is telekinesis from Ignatz, on the house, especially in his case, heh.  
  
Susie:   
  
This is supposed to be…he couldn’t find a less rapey way to-  
  
Jeremy:**  
  
**Please drop it, Susie: First off, I had to kiss Ignatz too to get his trust and ONE of his 5 powers. Second is the other 4 I’ll explain if you’ll listen.  
  
Susie:**  
  
… **Fuck it! Whatever, but heaven forbid Calvin ever finds out about it.  
  
Jeremy:   
  
That’s all I ask. Anyway, these mice are actually imports of a much older set of psychic rodents that originated from Himoneta Bilk’s country itself as a result of decades of evolution from the original radiated survivors of the atomic bomb, like those Fukushima rabbits but MUCH further. Their first inherent power is their ability to communicate telepathically. The second is they can fib if you hear their thoughts, but can only tell the truth once they move their lips to talk. The third power is they can serve as a hive mind and, much like The Division alone, be controlled unless the leader is taken down and replaced.  
  
Susie:**  
  
**That must’ve been what Ignatz was aiming for after Garfield was destroyed back at the first HQ.  
  
Jeremy:**  
  
**Yes, but returning to rule number 1, in that mice can communicate telepathically, you can’t communicate with anyone else telepathically UNLESS that same rodent opens its mouth to tell the truth towards you once. It’s like an exchange of trust once that same mouse decides to talk to someone and allow them to inherit their powers, that’s rule four.  
  
Susie:**  
  
**And…the fifth rule?  
  
Jeremy:  
  
It’s…a weird rule, but if it ever dies, YOU can’t unless someone punctures your ‘figurative mindset’**  
  
**Susie:**  
  
**Sounds nerdy.  
  
Jeremy:**  
  
**I didn’t get it either, but that’s your mice powers for today. Let’s get The High Boss’s death over with.  
  
Susie:  
  
What death? We’re already letting it-  
  
Jeremy:**  
  
**Come to us, I know. But we can’t defeat it, Ignatz verified that for me, sadly.  
  
Susie:**  
  
**What do you mean?**  
  
**Jeremy:**  
  
**Ignatz hasn’t moved his lips this entire time towards you…yet, but he advised me that if we are planning with Calvin astray, only one of us can come out alive, sadly excluding me and Ignatz.  
  
(Susie opened her eyes, tears on the verge of reigning)  
  
Susie:  
  
Are you suggesting…  
  
Jeremy:  
  
Overall, if only one is going to survive long enough to take the Boss down, it’s either going to be you or…  
  
(Susie then let go of Jeremy’s mouthlock)  
**  
Susie:  
  
**N** O! **S** T **OP**!!!  
  
(Susie gave a hopeless and Forlorn gaze back at Calvin)  
  
Susie:  
  
I won’t do this anymore! I CAN’T DO THIS TO CALVIN BECAUSE…he loves me, and I…I love him too!  
  
(Susie ran back inside in the process)  
  
_<FLASHBACK OVER>  
  
Susie:  
  
Well hey, pedophilia wasn’t worth a death sentence in the state of Massachusetts, but who’s the Boss here, right?  
  
(Eileen remained speechless)  
  
Susie:  
  
Oh worry not, thanks to Ignatz’s powers once you came along AND removed that final mask not many members know protects you from rodent telepathy, I took some prying of my own in your life after a minute of filler stalling.  
  
(The entirety of both Susie and Eileen’s worlds faded into a grade school’s cafeteria, where the Boss was about three years younger, next to another kid with blond hair and glasses: Jason)  
  
Susie:  
  
This is the boy you’ve been aiming to impress since day 1. You wanted him to at least notice you despite driving an impossible bargain: immature misogyny.   
  
(It was akin to a slideshow of Eileen’s worst times with Jason. Then it ended with her in an empty gym, wearing a mask and surrounded by hundreds of hooded members)  
  
Susie:  
  
Enter the Bilk Division, a super group you discover as the building blocks of his dreams: Video games. He is but a tiny member compared to the Morpheus of titles deemed High Boss you access easily enough to make him jealous if he ever found out. Too bad it can never be as easily as telling him. You first have to lure him into a maze of loopholes to have him meet his hero, er hee, heroin.   
  
(It then faded to a neighbourhood, where Eileen disguised as The High Boss used a tree next to the open window of his house to secretly enter Jason’s room)  
  
Susie:  
  
Once he’s a ‘High’ enough member to become a subordinate, you both agree to set up a meeting in his room, for the surprise of a lifetime.  
  
(Eileen flinches when he sees the ‘Back in 5 minutes’ post-it on Quincy, his iguana’s, cage, knowing any older BD High Boss would’ve left even if they had a thing for a member like she obviously did. Eileen was on the brink of throwing the paper into the bin when something else caught her attention)  
  
Susie:  
  
Only to have that surprise boomerang at the last second and come right back at you.  
  
(Eileen took out an origami card that read ‘For my one **true** love’ on the cover. Eileen couldn’t even flinch anymore now that she knew Susie was only rubbing it in)  
  
Susie:  
  
Here come’s your favourite part, EJ!  
  
(Eileen would punch her in the stomach if she could still see her. Eileen looked at her younger self read the card out loud)

 

‘My Feelings for you know no bounds  
That’s why I shout ‘I love you zounds’  
I love you more than anything  
When I’m with you, I want to singe’  
  
(Had it not been for a newly added verse, as well as some grammatical mistakes she could’ve sworn were intentional, Eileen knew Jason was recycling something long forgotten)  
  
‘All other girls can only cease  
To look at you once and appease  
The beauty, envy I beseech  
Can come from my true love  
  
**You** ’  
  
(Apart from having it all translated in braille as well, Eileen noticed a doubling on the word ‘you’ and the misspelling of the word ‘singe’. Then it hit her: The entire word ‘you’ was misspelled when analyzed using the words given to spell out another name that horrifically rhymed with the flow)  
  
My feelings for you know no boun **d** s  
That’s why I shout “I love you zounds!”  
I love you more than anything  
Wh **en**  I’m with you,  **I**  want to  **s** ing **e**.  
  
  
**DENISE.  
  
** (Then Eileen looked behind that same card to notice the discomfort of every emotion she ever felt since that fateful day: A picture of Denise herself, 17 at the time)  
  
Susie:  
  
It never had to go that far. The opposite gender would’ve sufficed. Why should he like girls as it finally was without having any other crush that WASN’T YOU?  
  
(Eileen nearly bent her knee as the thought relived before her very eyes)  
  
Susie:  
  
It’s taken out of your own words: You thought you were the sole dark stallion in this video game you reminded me was life. Black horse, black sheep, we all compete whether we know it, want it or don’t, including and especially Jason’s brother’s ex when the former first fancied her, fool!  
  
(Eileen then saw as her past self crumpled the picture and threw it outside before tearing up as she left)  
  
Susie:  
  
Then, like Sweeny Todd, it occurs to you: Even when I have more than what I need, there has to be another way to GET HIM!  
  
(At this point, Eileen wondered how far Susie was willing to go with this)  
  
Susie:  
  
I guess Two and a half birds meant one had to be stoned to make Chuck Lorre proud, eh old Boss?  
  
(Susie was halfway through showing Jason crying in the autopsy room, where she saw Denise’s forehead even more defiled, when Eileen realized this was enough)  
  
Eileen:  
  
THAT FUCKING DOES IT!! STOP!  
  
(Eileen’s surroundings returned to their swamp-like flourish, with Susie still being tied up again)  
  
Eileen:  
  
You were my subordinate…why couldn’t you just bring back our better days? When I lived for your dedication and professionalism that forgot the way I classified by rank from their budding potential all because I thought you and Jason **deserved** special treatment?   
  
Susie:  
  
Since when did making henchmen kill your oldest friends count as any morally acceptable ‘good time’?  
  
Shadow the Hedgehog mask:  
  
_Ah, Pende Inya! Hais Linas fern!  
  
_ (Susie was now bewildered herself before Eileen caressed the member almost closely)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Since I found ones that speak fluent Quenya Elvish as just one polish in their range. Finishing you off should appoint this high member as my new subby.  
  
(Susie rolled her eyes)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Improvement was what it was all about, Sue, not going backwards. Morton can fill you in on the rest!  
  
(Susie, as a last resort, reads Eileen’s mind one more time)  
  
**_Eileen:_**

 ** _You were INDEED a pet to me compared to THIS member.  
  
_** (Then Susie’s eyes opened at the excruciating epiphany)  
  
Susie:  
  
We’re **all** pets…aren’t we?  
  
(Eileen directed her attention to Susie’s voice rather than self)  
  
Susie:  
  
That’s all we are at this stage: rodents! We’re given a chip, but always renounce it for something bigger to engulf our heads into. It’s like Madonna’s pre-chorus verse goes in ‘Like a Prayer’: “No matter what we breed, we still are made of greed!” We all want something more. Something, which irrespective of how hard we try to earn, will always be beyond our grasp-

 

(And then, for the first time since she knelt there, Susie finally saw him: Calvin hiding behind the bushes, never once conscious of whom she really was)  
  
Susie:  
  
\- and when we do reach it, we were too desperate to see it as it really was: karma in disguise.

 

(Eileen clapped before replying)  
  
Eileen:  
  
I can’t deny your honesty on one thing: you **were** the last dark horse standing.   
  
(Eileen then faced the other four members)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Member A75, ready for discharge, ipso facto!  
  
(Before anything more could be said, it occurred to Calvin Susie might be hiding her earpiece without anyone knowing, so he took a walkie talkie out to see if it was still functional)  
  
Calvin:  
  
I can only hope  
  
(Calvin took out the Spiffweiser he took with him and aimed it at the member that was set to shoot Susie. But before he could even touch the trigger, Eileen’s words finally awakened something inside of him)  
  
Eileen:  
  
But just so we’re square: Even if I did fancy Calvin, I’d have to live in a cave…  
  
(Eileen sounded sarcastic the first instant, then angrily humorous the next)  
  
Eileen:  
  
…SO AS TO AVOID KNOWING SHIT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THOSE FUCKING NOODLES!!  
  
(Calvin looked aside to speak to himself)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Is she talking about the-?  
  
Shadow the Hedgehog mask:  
  
_NARO_!!  
  
BAM!!!!  
  
SPLASH!!!!!  
  
(Susie was shot in the head and, almost as instantly, fell into the water behind her. After that, Calvin’s background faded, like Eileen, into that same dreamlike world within a car, only it was just Susie next to him this time around)  
  
Calvin:  
  
The noodle incident…Sue…wait…SUSIE?!  
  
Susie:  
  
Heh, I was getting used to Sue now that we were older.  
  
Calvin:  
  
But…all these years, and these past couple of days. I…I still don’t underst-  
  
(Susie grabbed hold of Calvin’s metallic arm, which was real flesh again since he spoke to Hobbes, and kissed it)  
  
Susie:  
  
Only the ones who truly care can remind themselves.  
  
(Then Susie took hold of Calvin’s same yet metallic once again arm and placed it on the steering wheel. Calvin smiled upon seeing Susie’s face one more time before a tear fell and landed on his other arm)  
  
Calvin:  
  
You’re right…Sue. You only stopped fearing death because of me.  
  
BAAAAMM!  
  
(Then Calvin closed his eyes and steered the wheel with heavy force, waking him up. It then revealed that his metallic hand held the Spiffweiser that managed to kill off three of the four members present)  
  
SPLAAAASH!!!  
  
Calvin:  
  
High time I conquered **my** fear.  
  
_________________________________  
  
(The member that remained standing began shooting at Calvin, getting the fleshy portion of his metallic arm)  
  
Calvin:  
  
AAAUGH!  
  
Eileen:  
  
He brought his own to play with the-  
  
Shadow the Hedgehog mask:  
  
_UNDU!  
(_ Down! _)  
  
_ (Before she could even ask, the member slammed Eileen into the ground, evading two bullets as the meber rolled closer to Calvin’s location. Calvin’s metallic arm was no longer functional after the same member punctured some nerves within his flesh, forcing Calvin to take emergent measures)  
  
Calvin:  
  
If this doesn’t work, neither with the life of a lefty.  
  
(Calvin pressed a few extensions on his metallic forearm and detached the entire metallic limb, then throwing it to the right side of the bush so as to misdirect the member the closer it got. Once the member was two meters away, Eileen spoke)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Well done, Shadow, but as you can tell, his widdle army has fallen and given itself away.  
  
(The member ignored Eileen’s sad pun and approached another meter with the gun aimed at where it knew Calvin hid)  
  
Eileen:  
  
…I don’t know if you heard me the first time, or if you understand Elvish as well as English, but I’d like my gun back please?  
  
(Once the member wedged the gun into the bush and close enough to shoot Calvin dead, Eileen began walking towards the member, forcing it to hold out a hand towards her as though motioning to stop)  
  
Shadow the Hedgehog mask:  
  
Avá careorme.  
  
Eileen:  
  
Oh yeah, show off more Quenya at me, that’ll translate it any further. But I’m serious, put the gun back in my hand now!  
  
Shadow the Hedgehog mask:  
  
AVÁ CAREORME!!!  
  
(The member aggressively poked Calvin’s head, ready to shoot, while also aggressively motioning at Eileen to avoid approaching any nearer)  
  
Eileen:  
  
The old ‘This is the first time I’ve dealt with your type’ deal, is it now?  
  
(At that moment, Eileen walked until she was on the same ground as the member enough to simply snatch the gun out of its hands if she wanted to)  
  
Eileen:  
  
All right you…cheeky BASTARD! I know you can speak English from your resume, but this has gone far enough, so I’m just going to take my-  
  
(The member removed _his_ mask to reveal a deadbeat version of the last person on earth she expected: Jason Fox)  
  
Jason:  
  
I said DON’T FUCKING **MOVE**!!!!  
  
(Now Jason directed the gun at Eileen)  
  
Jason:  
  
Don’t…fucking…move.  
  
_________________________________


	19. Chapter 18: My Way

Chapter 18: My Way  
  
‘ _Just one more fight and I’ll be history. Yes I will straight up leave your shit. And you’ll be the one who’s left missing me.  
Yeah’ _ \- Fred Durst  
  
Jason:  
  
Don’t fucking move.  
  
(Eileen stood as was instructed, beyond even her own volition, as Jason’s will to kill was only held captive by the very little morality that was enough to avoid finishing Calvin off)  
  
Calvin:  
  
(whishper) One revenge at a time, _oui_?  
  
Jason:  
  
Is this the gun you used?  
  
Eileen:  
  
That’s…a really nice gun…Jason, dear lord…  
  
Jason:  
  
Is this the gun that was used on Marcus? Marcus is dead by the way, did you know that?  
  
Eileen:  
  
Don’t talk to me about Marcus, Jason…please…I-  
  
Jason:  
  
Is this the gun that was used on Morton?  
  
Eileen:  
  
Wait! I never had anything to do with…Morton.  
  
BAM!!!  
  
Eileen:  
  
WHOA! WAIT! Seriously!!  
  
(The bullet missed her feet by a few centimetres)  
  
Jason:  
  
Is this the gun that was used on everyone, ON DENISE?!?!  
  
(Jason felt tired while Eileen was all the variants of scared beyond belief)  
  
Jason:  
  
Is this **your** gun?  
  
Eileen:  
  
Jason!...calm down…let’s just both…  
  
Jason:  
  
You’re going to die.  
  
(Jason began moving forward as Eileen walked backwards towards the pier once again)  
  
Jason:  
  
I don’t want to make anything clearer than I ever have in my entire life, except that I loved Denise before you killed her…and that is that you’re going to die.  
  
(Jason stopped once Eileen made it to those same cracks that adorned the edge of the pier. She was trembling with fear despite trying to think Jason was the one who was truly afraid)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Jesus! Jason! Just…lower the gun…let’s talk it out, okay?  
  
(Jason remained more frozen than Data from Star Trek, even without the emotion chip)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Jason?! Please! Really do listen to me! As a solid…as a friend.  
  
Jason:  
  
You’re not **my** friend, Eileen! You never were.  
  
Eileen:  
  
That’s not how you really feel, Jason! Just think about everything we’ve been through.  
  
Jason:  
  
Asterisk on that last sentence, meaning ‘All you **put** me through’.  
  
(Eileen couldn’t help except scowl after her eyes widened)  
  
Eileen:  
  
…Put you-  
  
Jason:  
  
Math camp, Pokémon cards, stupid accusations in black and white, EVERY CLASS TEST EVEN WHEN I **DIDN’T** RUB IT IN EVER!!!!  
  
(Calvin checked his watch before realizing he didn’t even have an entire arm)  
  
Jason:  
  
Had enough, or have I merely perforated the surface, Sergeant High Boss NEELIE??  
  
(Upon that last retort, Eileen decided his words lacked persuasion. She was better off as the High Boss’s persona)  
  
Eileen:  
  
OKAY, FINE! Shoot me if that solves your mosquito bite of dead puppy love! But you are in no position to judge me nor hold me accountable for any misguided feelings if I never hurt you or your family directly the way I did her!  
  
Jason:  
  
Then feel free to say hi to my brother as he’s being JUDGED in court as we speak!!  
  
(Eileen pauses, as does Jason)  
  
Jason:  
  
Oh, you didn’t know? Maybe one of your subordinates did whilst covering this…this sect’s tracks! So just be real: I’m only here because this is your entire fault!  
  
Eileen:  
  
…Yeah, I can play the blame game.  
  
(Eileen walked towards Jason’s gun, letting the barrel poke her)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Do you know what it’s like to have the CIA, FBI, DEA, whateverthefuck, knock on your front door all because of some virus stating the painfully fucking obvious? Or that once you **are** into girls you don’t even apologize for being wrong, let alone admit it to the one you named that hate virus after?!?!  
  
Jason:  
  
Why should I care if my reputation had to die along with her?  
  
Eileen:  
  
Because if you did, I wouldn’t need to take it any steps further. What possible reason would you need, outside of class, to keep a secret outside of The Bilk Division?  
  
Jason:  
  
TO AVOID FUCKING UP AGAIN!!! GODDAMMIT!  
  
(This surprisingly calmed Eileen down for a few seconds)  
  
Eileen:  
  
What do you mean? When did you?  
  
Jason:  
  
Is this all worth what to you?! Denise simply proved how awesome the opposite gender could be. She reminded me of myself: outgoing, actually visually impaired, and unlike you, aware I was never playing hard to get!!  
  
Eileen:  
  
But she was still six years past your league! Do you honestly believe it could work out if you had told her? You had to unplug the NES one day to play the Super one!  
  
(Eileen sighed before Jason realized she might be reading her thoughts)  
  
Eileen:  
  
But what do I know, right? Past this gun, your vocabulary has done anything except try to save you in the past. That’s what’s made you the easy target, not me.  
  
(Jason thought maybe if he yelled hard enough, that would be enough to distract her telekinesis)  
  
Jason:  
  
Then how have the tables turned with just her memory to guide me?!  
  
(Eileen adapted a sarcastically warm tone)  
  
Eileen:  
  
Because Jason, sweetie, as bright as you want to be, you’re actually trying to be like her and the kind of love she would’ve offered: blind.  
  
Jason:  
  
And you’re any better, Miss Murder?! It’s thanks to you that I’ll never know that anyway for sure!  
  
Eileen:  
  
Then why isn’t it stopping you from avenging her?  
  
Jason:  
  
Because at least I minded my own bullshit!!  
  
Eileen:  
  
Which meant acting a quarter your age when you could’ve used twice, thrice, quadrice even, your own intellect!   
  
(Then it occurred to Jason how to get back at her: comparing her to a person she hated at that instant, which she thought might be him)  
  
Jason:  
  
FINE! BUT AM I THE ONE WHO ABUSED THIS BILK DIVISION THROUGH FEAROCRATIC METHODS LIKE I ABUSED OVER ANYONE WHO ONLY WANTED TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN PACE IN LIFE?!?!  
  
Eileen:  
  
I DON’T KNOW!!! AM I THE ONE WHO WASTED HER TIME, SPACE, AND AGE PINING FOR SOMEONE WHO WOULD NEVER LOVE ME BACK NO MATTER HOW MUCH I FANTASIZED OVER THEM WHILE IGNORING ANY AND EVERY RATIONAL WAKE UP CALL THAT CAME MY WAY?!?!?!  
  
_________________________________  
  
(The first fifteen seconds was bare silence that only consisted of Eileen trying to recoup her breath. Then Jason lowered his gun, and began to laugh, in which Susie read his mind to see why)  
  
Jason:  
  
_That’s **right**! Who’s laughing now? Quoth Evil Dead!_  
  
(Eileen didn’t get it at first. But once she did, another fifteen seconds in, her face melted in horror as she felt the trauma set in inside her like food poisoning)  
  
“ _Quoth Evil Dead_ ”  
  
Eileen:  
  
…No…  
  
“ _Quoth Evil Dead_ ”  
  
(This recent memory pummelled her to the ground until she knelt into near submission)  
  
<FLASHBACK>  
  
_Eileen:  
_  
_AM I THE ONE WHO WASTED HER TIME, SPACE, AND AGE PINING FOR SOMEONE WHO WOULD NEVER LOVE ME BACK NO MATTER HOW MUCH I FANTASIZED OVER THEM WHILE IGNORING…_  
  
<FLASHBACK OVER>  
  
“ **Q** _uoth_ **E** _vil_ **D** _ead_ ”  
  
(Jason stopped laughing once it began raining furiously. He himself knelt and did something odd: finally give Eileen the gun)  
  
Jason:  
  
Quite an experience, to live in regret, isn’t it?  
  
(He waited until her tear covered face hid behind the rain to look at him)  
  
Jason:  
  
That’s what it is to stand on a pier…and MISS THE BOAT.  
  
_________________________________  



	20. Chapter 19: Forever

Chapter 19: Forever  
  
‘ _Before I go, dry your tears, it is time to let you go’_ – Jacob Shaddix  
  
Eileen:  
  
But…*SOB*…why?  
  
(Jason looked at her face vehemently)  
  
Eileen:  
  
After everything I did…not tried, DID…how… **why** would you do this to me?  
  
(At first Jason wanted to feel bad due to Eileen’s painstaking sincerity, and then he saw her hand on the trigger still pointed at him. Jason held those hands, knowing how truly weak they were without him now)  
  
Jason:  
  
Oh Eileen…do you think I would’ve done this to anyone else **even** if they deserved it more?  
  
(Eileen remained silent)  
  
Jason:  
  
You asked me what right I had to keep my love for her a secret.  
  
(Eileen’s head jumps up to look at him)  
  
Jason:  
  
When you made me declare my soft spot for you, I assumed I could still live a normal life, but I couldn’t…I didn’t… **think** for a kid my age I’d be…compelled to choose between you and my untimely hatred towards girls at the time. I know you would never let me have both, so you know what it came down to in the end, don’t you?  
  
(Eileen looked like she wanted to answer, but in truth, was less sure than she had ever been in her entire short life. Jason, however, replied with the exact opposite of her current feelings)  
  
Jason:  
  
BINGO! Neither! Because what did girls, at least in general, have to do with it?  
  
(Jason nearly gripped her arms too tight)  
  
Jason:  
  
**You** made me choose, afflicted me knowing it was improbable, and forced me into an ironically unreal adulthood…not Denise…and I…  
  
(Now Eileen looked down as Jason’s smile didn’t even want to hide the tears that streamed down his face as much as her’s)  
  
Jason:  
  
I still BESEECHED you to cope, I begged for your clemency, I pleaded my life for you, Eileen! My worthless…stupid life if you still had the ovaries to leave me like I was as…empty and vain as the apologies, evidence, or earnest change I made for you… **THAT’S** why.   
  
(Eileen lowered her aim yet heightened her view of him after she heard this confession, despite Jason still feeling her finger on the same trigger)  
  
Eileen:  
  
But…I thought we had a club…to move on with…as…friends.  
  
(At that statement, Jason didn’t give neither Eileen nor Calvin any time to see it coming as he gripped her nearly lifeless hands)  
  
Jason:  
  
Only one of us chose to move on with their lives, Eileen, and right now-  
  
SMOOCH!  
  
(Eileen thought Jason’s kiss meant a different world, before paying no attention to what he did next, which meant a different universe altogether)  
  
BAAAMMM!!!!  
  
(Jason used Eileen’s own gun toting hands to shoot himself in the heart before continuing)  
  
Jason:  
  
-I’m glad it could’ve been me.  
  
Eileen:  
  
*GASP*! JASON! NO!  
  
Calvin:  
  
The…flying fuck?  
  
(Jason fell as the last shock inducing moment happened before their eyes: Much like Rat, Jason slowly faded from the feet up as though being made of sand, and off into the wind)  
  
Jason:  
  
I sent my sister to live on an island full of these psychic marmots once. Proving how pumping blood and platonic crushes only worked if you wanted to be immortal, not out of love.  
  
(It then hit Calvin as he arrived out of the bushes)  
  
Calvin:  
  
The Heart! **That** ’s what Ignatz meant when he was talking about the ‘figurative mindset’! It’s the fifth rule!  
  
(Jason looked up at him yet never turned his head to notice Calvin as half of him remained focused on Eileen)  
  
Jason:  
  
Heh…you were supposed to dodge that kiss, Eileen…it could’ve been a reward, except…now…for us both…it feels like a punishment just as much.  
  
(With that, the last of Jason’s head disappeared, leaving only Calvin standing)  
  
Calvin:  
  
Just out of curiosity, the date on the envelope read August 13, was that his birthday or something.  
  
(The rain slowly ceased as Eileen was overcome by silence before she retorts in an unhappy tone)  
  
Eileen:  
  
It…no.  
  
(Eileen looks up at Calvin with serene revulsion)  
  
Eileen:  
  
It was mine.  
  
(Then Eileen takes the gun and tries to shoot herself. No bullets come out, despite shooting five times. That’s when she begins to scream and, out of nowhere, tries to take herself out using Calvin’s Spiffweiser. It was also barren, leaving her to do nothing other than weep frantically on Calvin’s shoulder.)      
  
_________________________________  
The End.  



	21. Epilogue: Goodbye for now, youth of the nation

Epilogue: Goodbye for now, youth of the nation  
  
_Little Susie she was only twelve, she was given the world with every chance to excel/If joy really comes in the morning time then I’m going to sit back and wait until the next sunrise’_ – Sonny Sandoval  
  
(Susie swam her way to the other side of Magical lake, untying herself, and removing the Kevlar envelope that covered her chest with the sole bullet where it really hit her outside of the projected fantasy she duped Calvin with. She looked back at all the events, from Jason nearly killing Calvin to the latter comforting The High Boss after losing her crush)  
  
Susie:  
  
To be honest with you, Calvin: I was never afraid of death before it involved yours.  
  
(Susie walked off into the dawn)  
_________________________________  



End file.
